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Tag: Samuel Hahnemann

  • China officinalis — the first remedy proved by Hahnemann

    China officinalis — the first remedy proved by Hahnemann

    He was earning a living by translating  medical texts when he decided to test material doses of China for himself – the rest, as they say, is history!

    In this blog article, Luke Norland synthesises information from a wide variety of sources to give an in-depth portrayal of Homeopathy’s inaugural remedy.

    Taxonomy (Cronquist)

    Plantae. Angiospermae. Dicotyledon. Asteridae. Gentianales. Rubiaceae

    Affinities (Boger)

    BLOOD. CIRCULATION. SECRETIONS. Digestive Organs. Liver. Spleen. Nerves.

    Clinical (Clarke, italic symptoms)

    Abscess / Amblyopia / Anaemia / Appetite – disordered / Back – weakness of / Bilious affections – attack / Constipation / Debility / Diarrhoea / Ear – noises in / Emissions / Erysipelas / Headache / Hectic fever / Hip-joint – disease / Intermittent fever / Jaundice / Labour / Lactation / Lienteria / Liver – diseases of / Ménière’s disease / Menstruation – disorders of / Muscae volitantes / Neuralgia / Peritonitis / Perspiration – excessive / Pleurisy / Pylorus – diseases of / Self-abuse / Spermatorrhoea / Taste – disordered / Tea, effects of / Thirst / Tobacco – habit / Traumatic fever

    Established General Keynotes (Lippe)

    • Oversensitiveness, low-spirited with aversion to all noise
    • Debility from loss of fluids
      • an excellent indication is debilitating perspiration
    • A/F
      • LOSS OF VITAL FLUIDS
        • Especially hæmorrhages
        • excessive lactation
        • diarrhœa
        • suppurations
    • INTENSE THROBBING HEADACHE, AFTER EXCESSIVE HÆMORRHAGE
    • Worse slightest contact, and relieved by hard pressure
    • One hand icy cold, the other warm
    • CANINE HUNGER, ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT 

    PERIODICITY

    • PAROXYSMS COME ON AN HOUR OR TWO EARLIER, EVERY DAY, OR EVERY OTHER DAY.
      • The three stages are sharply marked-chill, fever and perspiration.
      • The chill may be absent, but the fever and perspiration must be present
    • Attacks of pain, caused by the slightest touch of the body and then increasing gradually and becoming very severe
    • The parts on which one lies go to sleep
    • Restlessness of the affected parts
    • Intermittent fever without thirst or thirst only between the cold and hot stage
    • Aggravation at night, from the least draught of air, after milk drinking

    Acute application

    From Misha Norland’s Get Well Soon

    Like Carbo Veg. this remedy is useful for excessive bloating of the belly where bringing up wind does not bring relief. Often the troubles, of whatever nature, come on after loss of fluids, this could be from blood loss, excessive menstruation, prolonged breastfeeding or extreme diarrhoea, which cause exhaustion, weakness, headaches with bursting, throbbing pain, extending from the back to the whole head; stomach disturbances; anaemia. People needing China are worse for light touch, rubbing or caressing, but better for hard pressure. They suffe r from general oversensitivity, perhaps even from paranoia, feeling themselves to be harassed, unfortunate, thinking that the world is hostile. They may be sleepless from over abundant ideas and plans.

    Worse


    Loss of fluids; touch; regularly returning symptoms; alternate days; wind; cold; summer and autumn.

    Better


    Hard pressure; loose clothing; bending double; warmth.

    Chronic application

    China is considered a rare constitutional type…

    These passages are from Vermeulen’s Synoptic Materia Medica

    • Artistic persons – like beautiful colors, “feel the colors”; make verses, painters; strong SENSE of BEAUTY.
    • Reserved disposition; express themselves in writing poems, painting; find it difficult or impossible to express their feelings in ordinary words; only talk about themselves with confident persons, good friends.
    • Strong imaginative power, evening in bed [compare Nat-m.:], or daydreaming.
    • thinks about all kinds of positive and wonderful things, like being able to fly, relaxing on a warm day at the seaside, being the richest person of the world, etc
    • Rubrics
      • Absentminded – dreamy
      • Activity – desires creative activity
      • Art – ability for
      • Beautiful things – awareness of; heightened
      • Desires – full of desires – cheerful; desires to be
      • Foppish
      • Grounded – not grounded
      • Idealistic
      • Impressionable
      • Innovative
      • Naive – intelligent, but very
      • Philosophy – ability for
      • Sentimental

    Desires / aversions

    • Aversion to superficial contacts [agg. “slight touch”], only want deep contacts and friendships [amel. “hard, deep pressure”].
    • Desire to have the BEST THINGS [Mind: unworthy, objects seem [2/1]; unattractive, things seem [1/1]].

    Sensation and function

    Hering’s Guiding Symptoms

    • Fulness in head, sensation as if brain was rolled around, with great excitement, nervous susceptibility increased.
    • Sensation as if brain was balancing to and fro, and was striking against skull, occasioning great pain.
    • ¤¤ Sensation as if head would burst, with sleeplessness; agg from motion or any jar; amel in room and when opening eyes.
    • Sensation of constriction as if bound with a cord, especially on right side of forehead and occiput; agg by walking, when there are violent throbbings and head feels as if it would burst.
    • ¤ Sensation as if food pressed upon and hurt stomach.
    • ¤¤ Sensation in lower leg as if garters were tied too tightly, and as if leg would go to sleep and become stiff.
    • ¤ Sensation as of a band tightly tied around different parts of leg or arm.
    • ¤ AFTER CONTINUED OR REPEATED HEMORRHAGE (SUBACUTE), OCCUR PROSTRATION, NERVOUS AGITATION, ANXIOUS MANNER; CAN HARDLY RESPIRE AT ALL; VERY PALE AND GHASTLY; PULSE FAILING; HEMORRHAGE OF DARK BLOOD; SENSATION AS IF IT FLOWED WARM FROM THE HEART.

    Verbs (from sensations as if symptoms)

    Polarities – Sanguine  vs Melancholic 

    Click the links for Sanguine and Melancholic to explore the qualities of these temperaments or CLICK HERE  for an article on Mappa Mundi

    Sensations

    Contained, tightly bound VS Filled up, enlarged

    Beaten, hindered VS Unhampered, light and air

    Sanguine

    Affectionate / Amorous / Capriciousness / Cheerful / Extravagance / Fancies – exaltation of / Foolish behavior / Hopeful / Idealistic / Inconstancy / Irresolution / Libertinism / Mirth / Mood – changeable / Naive / Nymphomania / Plans – making many plans / Sensitive – sensual impressions, to / Vivacious

    Melancholic

    Antisocial / Aversion – persons – all, to / Censorious / Company – aversion to – desire for solitude / Complaining / Deceitful / Delusions – forsaken; is / unfortunate, he is / wrong – suffered wrong; he has / Despair / Discontented / Discouraged / Fear – people; of / Introspection / Loathing – life / Meditating / Monomania / Philosophy – ability for / Reserved / Suspicious / Taciturn / Touched – aversion to be / Unattractive, things seem / Unfortunate, feels / Weary of life

    Miasm

    Malarial (Sankaran)

    China is a remedy of the plant kingdom, and in my understanding it is the main remedy of the malarial miasm. The malarial miasm lies between the acute and sycotic miasms. Malaria is characterized by intermittent fevers – sudden acute attacks of fever with chills, followed by periods of relative dormancy. There is therefore an acute phase, which is characterized by a feeling of threat, followed by longer periods of fixed states of being that are of a sycotic nature, i.e. there is a fixed sensation of deficiency with the need to cover up.

    Malarial miasm  – between the Acute and Sycotic
    Click here  to read an in-depth guie to the Miasms through a mythological prism

    Like the Typhoid miasm, there is a periodicity to the Malarial miasm as it oscillates between the fixed phase (of Sycotic origin) and the acute flare up, which feels tormenting, as if the person is persecuted and harassed as by a mosquito. Sankaran says it goes between excitement and acceptance, and these can be seen as the more positive expressions of the acute and Sycotic. Migraine headaches fall into this category, with periods of acceptance, covering up the weakness or fragility through habits and routines, making sure they don’t eat or drink things that might trigger the migraine. If they overdo it (Sycotic) or eat the wrong food, or have a stressful day at work, these trigger off the acute side of the miasm to vent off some of this build-up of tension. In this period of flare up, the person is utterly overcome, they often have to lie motionless in a dark room to avoid aggravating the intense disturbance of the migraine. The situation Sankaran gives for this miasm is like the employee of an irate boss – you’re stuck and dependent (Sycotic) on the job, but also feel persecuted, harassed and undermined by them.

    Nat-m has this experience in the realm of Row 3; issues of the relationship. Natrum has a stage 1 expression of feeling as though they absolutely need the other person to make them feel secure and whole (acute), whereas muriaticum has a stage 17 expression of feeling betrayed, let down and used by their partner. They react to this by withdrawing, brooding, hiding the turbulence of their emotions, and seeking a tumultuous ocean, or a wild love affair with which to excite/rouse themselves again (Sycotic). However, the drama inside will eventually seek an outlet that could be somatised (E.G. migraine) in order to vent the pent-up emotions inside. The myth of Aphrodite’s forced marriage to the lame smithy god Hephaestus has some resonance with this miasm. As a dependent upon Zeus, she was forced into this dull marriage (fixed, acceptance); but she had many passionate liaisons (excitement) with Ares to make up for this boredom.

    Homeopathic themes of China officinalis

    Hindered, persecuted, tortured

    The feeling in China is:

    “I am weak – people attack, trouble and torture me“, a feeling of being persecuted. The patient feels he is weak, not good enough, that he is persecuted and hindered at his work by other people, that he is obstructed from achieving his ambition. So he fantasizes and in these fantasies he makes himself worthy and achieves his ambitions, and in this wayuses fantasies to cover up the inherent feeling of not being good enough … He is frustrated, being unable to achieve his ambition; so he starts planning, fantasizing, theorizing. Unlike Cannabis indica, who slips into his fantasy world automatically, China is ambitious and plans step by step.He achieves his ambition by building castles in the air. He feels what he possesses is not good enough and that he would have possessed better things if he had not been obstructed and hindered” (Sankaran)

    Teenage, daydreaming, air-castles, idealism

    “The combination of sensitivity, idealism and extreme touchiness makes China a useful remedy in teenagers. China has great excitability, sometimes described as “nervous erethism.” At night the patient lies sleepless with fantasies of heroic deeds or great plans for the future. He is embarrassed by these thoughts on waking the next day.” (Morrison)

    Strong imaginative power, evening in bed [compare Nat-m.], or daydreaming. Chin. thinks about all kinds of positive and wonderful things, like being able to fly, relaxing on a warm day at the seaside, being the richest person of the world, etc., after which they feel happy and satisfied and fall asleep. They usually think of nice stories in which they play the hero. The same pattern can occur during the day, when they are disturbed or embarrassed. (Ghegas)

    Violent, abusive, insulting

    Every external impression leaves deep traces. The intensity of China’s inner life can lead to exhaustion [“loss of mental fluids”], with the result that they become irritable and even violent, insulting and abusive. In this stage the world becomes hostile; they feel unfortunate, do not want to live any more but lack the courage to commit suicide. (Ghegas)

    Spiritual, creative

    She will approach you rather warily, and may remain wary until she knows you well, and even then, she will only reveal her true sensitivity if she is convinced that you are both understanding and sensitive. These are generally fascinating people who are principally interested in spiritual matters, and they are all the more interesting because their spiritual interests are based on direct experience, rather than intellectual attraction. (Bailey)

    A remedy of contradictions

    China is one of the most difficult constitutional types to come to grips with from the point of view of the personality. One reason for this is that it is a rare type, that is very poorly understood by most homeopaths. In fact, most homeopaths regard China as simply a local or acute remedy, not realising that it is a full constitutional type, with its own unique personality profile. Another reason for China’s obscurity is the existence of contradictory elements in the persona of the China individual, such as timidity and criticism, and a third reason is the ethereal nature of many China individuals, which is too subtle to be grasped by the insensitive. (Bailey)

    • Contemptuous – values of generally accepted
      • Interesting in light of it being Hahnemann’s first remedy proving and introduction to the philosophy of Homeopathy – something that absolutely stands in the face of generally accepted values.
      • Need for new ideas, creativity. Cf Silver series.
    • Excitement – hemorrhage, after
    • Fancies – lascivious – impotence, with
    • Fear – animals, of – domestic
    • Hysteria – loss of – fluids; after
    • Ideas – abundant – night – bed; in
    • Naive – intelligent, but very
    • Plans – making many plans – night – bed; in

    Mind constantly changing from one thing to another

    • She thinks she is very unfortunate and constantly harassed by enemies. ð Pregnancy.
    • Disposition to be alone.
    • An excessively anxious solicitude about trifles.
    • Maniacal condition, says and does foolish things and runs about. ð Intermittent.
    • During a cheerful mood, sudden transient screaming and tossing about bed, without any apparent cause.
      • Compelled to jump out of bed; wants to destroy himself, but lacks courage.
    • Dislike to all mental or physical exertion.
    • Disinclination to think; alternating condition of cheerfulness and gloom.
      • Indifference, apathy, taciturnity.
    • Indifference to his pains, great lassitude and weakness. ð Typhoid.
    • What usually appears to him bright and joyous seems now unattractive, unworthy and shallow.
    • Fitful mood; cheerfulness alternating with sadness.

    Thanks for reading – if you got this far, well done!

  • Words of wisdom from Hahnemann, Kent and others

    Words of wisdom from Hahnemann, Kent and others

    Be inspired by the Masters of Homeopathy!

    Take some time to deepen your Homeopathic Knowledge this week! Learn from the masters, read a chapter of a Materia Medica in your RadarOpus, deepen your repertorization skills… Whatever it is that you do, will help you to be a better Homeopath! And the world needs good Homeopaths.

    Samuel Hahnemann

    In 1781, Hahnemann took a village doctor’s position in the copper-mining area of Mansfeld, Saxony. He soon married and would eventually have eleven children. After abandoning medical practice around 1784, and while working as a translator of scientific and medical textbooks, he discovered the critical information which sparked his imagination and set him upon his research and practice of homeopathic medicine. For many years he traveled around Saxony, living and practicing in different towns and villages for varying lengths of time, never far from the river Elbe, before finally settling in Paris in June 1835.

    Hahnemann became well-known for successfully treating many patients during epidemics of typhus and cholera. His concept of the genus epidemics, obtained by studying the collective symptoms of a cohort of sufferers, enabled him to pick out 1 or 2 remedies that were highly specific to the contagious outbreaks. He was able to inform other doctors of these medicines so they could be used to protect people coming into contact with the disease. As recently as 2007, Cuba successfully managed a very large scale outbreak of leptospirosis using Homeopathy alone – showing once again the enduring legacy of Hahnemann.

    He claimed that the medicine and medical practices of his time did as much harm as good: He claimed that the medicine and medical practices of his time did as much harm as good: 

    “My sense of duty would not easily allow me to treat the unknown pathological state of my suffering brethren with unknown medicines. The thought of becoming in this way a murderer or malefactor towards the life of my fellow human beings was most terrible to me, so terrible and disturbing that I wholly gave up my practice in the first years of my married life and occupied myself solely with chemistry and writing.”

    He wrote, in the very first Aphorism of the Organon:

    The physician’s highest and only calling is to make the sick healthy, to cure, as it is called.

    Footnote:

    His mission is not, however, to construct so-called systems, by interweaving empty speculations and hypotheses concerning the internal essential nature of the vital processes and the mode in which diseases originate in the interior of the organism; nor is it to attempt to give countless explanations regarding the phenomena in diseases and their proximate cause, wrapped in unintelligible words and an inflated abstract mode of expression, which should sound very learned in order to astonish the ignorant – whilst sick humanity sighs in vain for aid.

    Hahnemann, we salute you!

    James Tyler Kent


    Dr. Kent was born in Woodhul, New York. He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and started practice in St. Louis as an Eclectic. He became interested in homoeopathy in 1878, when his wife’s illness failed to respond either to eclectic or allopathic treatment and was cured by a homoeopath.

    Kent began practice with low potencies, but he was not satisfied. Later he resolved to test the 30th potency to see if there was any medicine present. He prepared with his own hands the 30th potency of Podophyllum according to Centesimal scale after the method of Hahnemann.

    One day a child was brought in to his clinic in emergency and it appeared that the child would not live long. While it lay in the arms of its mother, a thin yellow fecal stool ran all over his carpet. The odor was like that of the Podophyllum stool. It was horribly offensive, and the stool was so copious that the mother made the remark that she did not know where it all came from. Dr. Kent thought to test Podophyllum 30 prepared by him for that case. Next morning he was surprised to learn from the grandmother of the child that he was doing well. One dose of Podophyllum cured a dangerously ill patient. He then realized the power of the potentized remedies, and he thought of using increasingly potentized remedies in his practice.

    He became famous as a high potency homoeopath, as most of the homoeopaths before him were using low potency remedies. He advocated the use of the 30th, 200th, 1M, 50M, CM, DM and MM potencies made on the Centesimal scale.

    Dr. Kent introduced the doctrine of ‘Series in Degrees’ in the treatment of chronic diseases. He found that one potency was not sufficient for chronic cases, though it would generally do for acute illnesses. Many chronic illnesses were cured by keeping the patient under the influence of the one indicated remedy for two or more years. But this cannot be done with continuous curative action, unless the doctrine of ‘Series in Degrees’ is fully understood and used.

    Dr. Kent discovered that “just as there are octaves of musical tones, so there are octaves in the simple substance, through which severally it is possible to correspond with the various planes of the interior organism of the animal cells.” These planes correspond to the similar remedy in 30th, 200th, 1M 10M 50M, CM, DM, and MM potencies. He found that when the action of the 30th is completed the patient needs the 200th potency, but when the action of 200th potency is exhausted, the patient requires the 1M potency; and so on till the same remedy in higher and highest potencies cures permanently.

    Dr. Kent also discovered the ‘Law of Vital Action and Reaction’ as pointed out by Dr. Hahnemann. “A medicine is not too high to cure so long as it is capable of aggravating the symptoms belonging to the sickness; in the first hours in acute, and in the first few days of a chronic sickness.” He also thought that a homoeopathic aggravation was essential from the application of the Simillimum in chronic cases. Dr. Kent felt that if there was relief without homoeopathic aggravation, the chronic sickness was only superficially affected and would require a deeper acting remedy to remove the vital disorder.

    Dr. Kent laid greatest importance to the will, understanding and memory of the patient. They form the innermost of the man, and are extended outward through the general physical organism. Cure takes place from center to periphery, but if the symptoms retreat from periphery to center the prescription is wrong and must be antidoted. Hence in order to treat successfully, the homoeopath should know the correspondence of organs and direction of cure.

    Dr. Kent proved many new medicines, which he described in his book: ‘New Remedies, Clinical Cases, Lesser Writings, Aphorisms and Precepts’. 

  • Celebrating the birthday of Samuel Hahnemann

    Celebrating the birthday of Samuel Hahnemann

    10th April 1755 – 2nd July 1843

    “The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles.”

    Hahnemann, ‘Organon of Medicine’. Paragraph 2

    Samuel Hahnemann was born in Meissen, Saxony near Dresden. His father, along with many other family members, was a painter and designer of porcelain, for which the town of Meissen is famous. As a young man, Hahnemann became proficient in a number of languages, including English, French, Italian, Greek and Latin; later he learnt Arabic and Hebrew.

    Hahnemann studied medicine for two years at Leipzig. Citing Leipzig’s lack of clinical facilities, he moved to Vienna, where he graduated on 10 August 1779, qualifying with honors.

    In 1781, Hahnemann took a village doctor’s position in the copper-mining area of Mansfeld, Saxony. He soon married and would eventually have eleven children. After abandoning medical practice around 1784, and while working as a translator of scientific and medical textbooks, Hahnemann discovered the critical information which sparked his imagination and set him upon his research and practice of homeopathic medicine. For many years he traveled around Saxony, living and practicing in different towns and villages for varying lengths of time, never far from the river Elbe, before finally settling in Paris in June 1835.

    He claimed that the medicine and medical practices of his time did as much harm as good:
    “My sense of duty would not easily allow me to treat the unknown pathological state of my suffering brethren with unknown medicines. The thought of becoming in this way a murderer or malefactor towards the life of my fellow human beings was most terrible to me, so terrible and disturbing that I wholly gave up my practice in the first years of my married life and occupied myself solely with chemistry and writing.”