***IN the dissertations on the vital energy we pointed out that it was this force which was the expression of life itself, and through its power of development and control in itself and by itself it maintains the harmonious working, the state of equilibrium, which is perfect health. There are external forces that have great influence in inhibiting its normal functioning. When the normal function is inhibited the immediate reaction is a lack of harmony and a warped and suppressed functioning of the vital force, so that disease conditions are produced with the attendant symptoms and irregular functions of the body.
Let us consider some of these external features that may thus suppress the normal functions of the vital force, and through the vital force the normal functioning of the body. Such conditions as shell-shock, fright, fear, excessive joy, intense unsatisfied longing for mate or offspring, unrequited love, grief from loss of family or friends, business apprehensions and worries, disappointed ambitions, extreme fatigue or exhaustion; all these forces have an influence upon the vital energy, and so warp and suppress its natural functioning that a train of symptoms is produced, varying in their manifestations, but each varying widely from the natural expressions of the vital energy. We often see cases where these suppressing emotions not only affect profoundly the single individual, but extend their influence to the next generation through the effect on a nursing mother.
The palliative effect of medicines in physiological form is a condition that we see over and over again, and we can observe the sequence of suppressive action, the results being first palliation and then suppression or an actual aggravation of the first condition. There are always the primary and secondary action as a result of physiological dosage, and we see it well expressed in Paragraph 59 of the *Organon, where Hahnemann says:
Such palliative antipathic remedies were never employed in allaying the prominent symptoms of protracted diseases, without being followed in a few hours by the contrary condition, i.e. the return of the evil, often seriously aggravated.
The paragraph continues, speaking of the use of opium in suppressing coughs, and the use of the same drug in diarrhoea, and coffee producing exhilaration, and other physiological primary effects in common practice; then he goes on to show the secondary effects as being but an aggravation of the first condition, or an entirely different group of symptoms of deeper significance.
The homoeopathic physician constantly comes across drug effects in physiological form which have suppressed the natural expression of diseases. The one thing we should always bear in mind and should hold as our aim is to allow the vital force to express itself in its own chosen way when it is deranged. It is only when it shows itself clearly and without interruption in its natural development that we get a clear picture of the diseased state, and the administration of physiological medicine at such times changes the whole picture, suppressing one symptom after another until there is no expression of the true condition of the patient.
The immediate effect of this method of treatment is a suppression but if persisted in and continued over a period of time it has the effect of driving the vital energy to express itself in some other form, and usually in deeper and more vital organ.
As an illustration, consider the use of opium and its derivatives for the suppression of coughs. If this treatment is continued for any length of time, instead of a cough we find the patient has become subject to a condition far more serious, for he has developed a chronic state of night cough; each time it is suppressed it is driven still deeper, and the patient soon develops fever, night sweats, and a general hectic condition. This may happen in simple coughs. It may happen in pneumonic coughs. The danger of this suppression is very great, as can easily be noticed, especially in pneumonias, where the least suppression is often fatal.
Likewise in diarrhoeas, the suppression of a diarrhoea will often produce constipation, then fever and a tendency to delirium. One who remembers the time when cholera infantum was so prevalent will remember also that many children who had received opium to stop diarrhoea (which it promptly did) developed the next day a hydrocephaloid state and succumbed to the ravages of opium rather than to the ravages of the disease. The present indiscriminate use of the salicylates and coal tar derivatives in rheumatic and allied states invariably sends the trouble to the central organs, especially to the heart.
The present-day advertising of proprietary articles for the relief of pain, such as aspirin, and the consequent indiscriminate use of such preparations is exceedingly harmful, for it suppresses once more the danger signal of pain, and it always covers the condition but never removes it, rendering it possible to appear in a much exaggerated and more dangerous manifestation in some other organ, or in a much more serious condition in the same organ.
Another form of suppression that is very frequently seen is the external application of drug preparations for the removal of skin manifestations, such as eczema. These skin manifestations can be removed by the external use of drug preparations. This, however, does not cure the diseased condition, and the chronic miasm that has been expressed through the skin manifestations is forced to hide his head, but it surely will still be present in the organism and express itself in some deeper and more vital part, nearer the centre of vitality. If this course of treatment is persistently continued and the condition continually suppressed, the patient becomes nearly impossible of cure. The danger from these suppressions is very great, for the longer they are suppressed the more likely they are to take on nervous and mental manifestations, striking at the very seat of life and reason, and there expressing itself.
Hahnemann’s *Organon, Paragraph 61, gives us the following:
Had physicians correctly observed and considered the deplorable results of the antipathic application of medicines, they would long ago have discovered the great truth, that the true method of performing permanent cures must be the exact counter-part of such antipathic treatment.
They would have perceived that, whenever the opposite or antipathic administration of medicine produced a brief period of alleviation, this would subside, only to be followed by one of aggravation and that is to say, the homoeopathic application of medicines according to their symptom-similitude would have brought about a lasting and perfect cure, provided that, instead of large quantities of medicines, the most minute doses had been employed. Notwithstanding the experience of many centuries, physicians did not recognize this great and salutary truth, they appear to have ignored entirely the results of treatment above described as well as the other fact, that no physician ever effected a permanent cure of an inveterate disease, unless some drug of predominant homoeopathic effect had been by chance embodied in his prescription nor were they able to comprehend that every rapid and perfect cure, accomplished by nature without the aid of human skill, was always produced by a similar disease coming to the one already present.
Another source of suppression is the attempt to suppress the natural secretions of the body, like the perspiration in the armpits and the perspiration of the feet, by the use of medicinal powders. This forbids the elimination of waste matter through the natural channels and this waste must be taken up in other parts of the body and the attempt made to eliminate them through these other channels. In this way much harm may be done, and while the local suppressions may be entirely successful, the constitutional manifestations are inimical to health.
Under the suppression of secretions we often find the suppression of the menses by cold baths, or the sudden suppression of sweat by plunging in for a cooling swim after exertion or in hot weather. Here too we find the resulting action on the vital force, with the disturbance taking on grave, or even dangerous, forms.
A frequent form of suppression in modern days is the removal of disturbing organs by surgical means, again forbidding the expression of the vital force through its chosen organs, where it has expressed itself in a diseased state of the tonsils, the teeth, the sinuses, or any other part of the economy. The particular disturbance is shown by the symptom picture of the patient. In removing the tonsils, the teeth, or other organs by surgical operation we are dealing with the end-product and not with the vital energy. We are cutting off the manifestations of disease and are doing nothing to set in order the vital energy or to prevent further disease manifestations. These diseased conditions have developed as an expression of the inward turmoil and distress under which the whole individual suffers.
