GENTLEMEN: The things which I bring to your consideration in the following remarks are partly such as one does not willingly speak of. In spite of this, I venture to do so because, owing to this very reluctance to speak of such things, the ignorance concerning them is very great. Due to my own ignorance in these matters, I can only hope to inaugurate an interest in the subject. I do not pretend to express an opinion either pro or con.
In order to discover the similar, we study:.
The organ. Relationships.
Accompanying symptoms.
Course of the same, according to the time and sequence of their appearance.
Constitution.
Having determined upon the remedy most similar according to the foregoing points, it remains for us to study the potency of the remedy. How important a role, in seeking the correct potency, does the dynamic conception of Hahnemann in conjunction with the modern, although scarcely better expressed, potential energy play?.
I related, during the discussion concerning the Treatment of Skin Diseases with High Potencies that I treat most of them, including psoriasis, with high potencies; however, that I have treated with most successful results, particularly psoriasis of the most stubborn character, complicated with joint affections, with very low potencies of Calcarea phosphoricum and Sulphur thionicum, 1A substance not known in this country.-W.J.S.P. a preparation that has been dissolved with most intense care. Fever reaction up to 40 degrees Celsius.
I have treated the most severe cases of asthma for many years with low potencies even of Tartarus 2Tartarus emeticus.-W.J.S.P. unsuccessfully, the 30th potency helped. Gelsemium in the low potencies failed in Gelsemium headaches when Gelsemium 30th has effective. As I related as the time, for many years I gave Drosera in the 3rd potency in cases of whooping-cough, with slight results, while later the 30th potency, with appropriate time of waiting, acted with certainty. China, 3rd potency, failed in gall stones when the 30th potency of the same remedy helped the patient. In regard to repeating: Lachesis 30th every day failed. Single doses every five days were successful with the same patient.
Therefore repetition also belongs to the similar. A 36 year old woman with hypomenorrhagia (see page 17, XIV); heart attacks, headaches, giddiness, cannot be alone, must be continually on the street; her mother or sister appears in her dreams, at one time small, at another time large; dreams that she was quarrels with her physician; restless, trembling; attacks of very marked blushing of face and upper part of body. In the course of the treatment, the attacks became less frequent then I administered Stramonium 30x which corresponded to the symptom picture. For three days following the administration of Stramonium 30x severe attacks occurred. Stramonium 200x effected a cure. If I continue to refer in my refer in my discourse to the much slandered Kent, I fully realize the danger of my undertaking, but I refer you to the remarks with which I began.
The similimum, the curative force, is not necessarily expressed in the remedy as such. Aconite 200th can cure where Aconite 30th fails. If Aconite tincture cures and indeed permanently, it is the similimum. (In one case, to be sure, with a very labile heart, I saw a severe attack of weakness develop from Aconite 3x.- ED.) Arsenicum 200th disappointed in a clear cut ARsenic case., Arsenicum 10M cured at once. The remedy was Arsenicum, but the similimum was Arsenicum 10M.
Neither the name of the disease, nor the name by which the remedy is known, is the decisive element in affecting a cure. The correct potency and the rate of its repetition are often the decisive factors. A high potency with infrequent repetition should be employed at once, the improper low potency blurs the disease picture.
The prescription is a questionable one if the sickness disappears only upon frequent repetition. Sulphur 6th improved a Sulphur case remarkably, but not permanently. The patient disappeared, but returned in three years uncured. Kent had, as he said, acquired a deeper conception into the nature of a homoeopathic cure in the meantime. Nux vomica 2M improved for some weeks. But the same burning on the vertex and on the soles continued; the same empty feeling at eleven oclock in the morning; the same itching; the same general malaise. One dose of Sulphur 55M cured in two months, three doses in all cured definitely (Kent.)
Thus a glimpse into a remarkable mode of thought. I feel impelled to present it to you. It is , for me, an unexplored land. However, one find among these men exceptional experts in therapy and authors of most instructive writings. They are very rare in Germany and for this reason our ignorance of the subject is great and therefore opposition to high potencies is not reasonable.
Gentleman! It is really ridiculous for me to bore you any longer with these details; because, as I have already said, I do not understand them myself. My excursion into the region of the high potencies is very limited and I do not understand anything about the highest potencies, but I think it is desirable, just because none of you, in all probability, understand them any better than I do, that you should hear what Kent has to say concerning them. To be sure, in order to form a proper judgment of them, it is necessary for one to have suitable preparations (preparate). So far as I know, no one in Germany has done any practical work in this direction. Let us listen to one who objects on principle:.
That a genuine high potency, that is the power, similar to psychical affects, derived from the material substance and dynamatized by means of a specified pharmaco-technique, made in a certain sense “soulful”, that such a substance can make a healthy human have a remedy sickness has never been demonstrated at any time. For this reason we flatly refuse to recognize any “remedy proving with high potencies.” (Dr. Wapler in Rundscheriben).
In the mass of literature, as you know, only Hughes takes a similar stand. He has simply regarded as non-existent any provings with a potency higher than the 12x. His Encyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesis is, in consequence, one sided. I cannot resist from quoting Kent in regard to this, under the title A Reply to Dr.Hughes Kent reports a case which he treated for light rheumatic pains.
In the morning the had given Bryonia 1M, at ten oclock in the evening he was urgently called. The patient received him with the following words: “Doctor, the first dose of your medicine caused me to have pains in the side of the head and in the temples; each dose made it worse until I could not stand it any longer. When I turn the head forward, the pains is there when I turn it to the other side, it is there.”.
Pulsatilla and Phosphoricum acidum were the only remedies that Kent knew for headache on the side on which one lies. What that Bryonia or was it a new disease picture? The Bryonia was stopped, the pain disappeared along with all traces of the rheumatism. Kent has given this remedy for such a headache when the general symptom picture called more for Bryonia than for Pulsatilla or Phosphoricum acidum and has found this symptom verified. Dr. Hughes would refuse is because is originated from a high potency. After a long dissertation concerning the inferiority of Hughes book, he closes,” As a toxicology it has its value, but as a pathogenesis it is a travesty”.
I give these quotations from Kent chiefly for the purpose of orientation without making any comments.
Kent discusses the question of the similimum in relation to the potency further in an article, Graduated Series. He recognizes in them one of the most important points in the treatment of chronic diseases. Even after the most painstaking selection of a remedy, its good effects will, at times, cases; another remedy will be prescribed without effect, another potency of the original remedy induces continued improvement.
Many physicians always give a low potency; others always the 30th, others the 200th, others always very high potencies. One potency is not sufficient for chronic disease. In the use of the highest potencies, the rate of increase in the potency when changing the potency is of more decisive importance than it is when using low potencies. Kent does not believe in a suggestive effect of his remedies because patients speak on the effect of the higher potency, after the aggravation due to the previous potency, as the same remedy.
Formerly he raised potency in the following gradations: 200, 300, 500, 800, but IM worked best.
After he came into possession of the Fincke potencies, he found that the jump from 45M to CM acted more energetically than the intermediated potencies. With more experience, he found the sensitive patients, women and children, with chronic illness, must begin with the 30th or 200th rather than higher. He finally decided upon the steps 30th, 200th, 1M, 10M, 50M, CM, DM, MM.
I present an uncomplicated case taken from his interesting collection which he treated punctiliously with one remedy, increasing the potency when it was necessary. A woman, 31 years of age, with haemorrhage from the uterus, January 19, 1890. Copious bleeding of light red fluid blood mixed with large clots. Haemorrhage on her marriage day as was usual with every emotional excitement.
