THE POWER OF THE INFINITESIMAL


To this end how essential to know the history of the parents and relatives, and to link the symptoms of childhood and youth with those of old age. To advise in matters of diet as well, so that a properly balanced ration may prevent nervous diseases in the early part of life or the hardening of arteries and uncontrollable conditions in the aged.


(From The Homoeopathic Recorder).

THE infinitesimal quantity in our potentized remedies is beyond our ken, but its presence can be demonstrated, not by destruction but by healing, as the following cases will show.

Case 1.–

Several years ago when attending a case of confinement I was asked to prescribe for the mother of the patient, a lady some sixty-five years of age, who was afflicted with a weak, intermitting heart. During the following days two remedies were given without benefit. Finally I asked the lady how long the saliva had been running down over her chin, which I had observed she moped away every few minutes. She replied, “It is the distress of my life, and I am so ashamed of it. It has been so for over a year.”.

Well, I concluded that this stream could be stopped, if I could not cause e heart to beat regularly, so I gave her Nat. mur. 200, and in two days her chin was as dry as the Sahara Desert, and behold her heart fell into line and ticked as fine as any one could desire, and every five or six months she would send for some of that remedy whenever her heart started to intermit.

Case II.–

Mrs. W., age 39.

March 29th., 1921. Presented herself and stated that she had a sensation as if her eyelids caught over the pupils. This distress had persisted for three months and annoyed her upon opening or closing the lids. Now, here, was a new symptom to me, never heard of it before. How is it to be cured? How is the remedy to be found? Was I to try Euphrasia, Pulsatilla, Silicea or a dozen other remedies that have distinct action upon the eye in other conditions? Or anoint with salve daily, or wash with a solution of Boric acid? No, one has to fall back upon the philosophy of the Organon, and go right down through the patient combing for symptoms. So we found:.

Constipation, rectum seems powerless.

Menses twice a month and too free.

No appetite for breakfast, but hungry, and weak between 10 and 11 a.m.

Headache in forehead, worse when shopping.

Headache better in a hot house, and when in bed wants many covers.

Itching often in various parts of the body.

Pains low down in the sacrum.

Yellow sand in the urine that sticks to the chamber.

Sulphur 200.

April 11th, 1921. Reports the eye trouble completely gone; constipation better, appetite good, headache with menses as usual, but cramps not nearly so bad, no itching, still sediment in the urine.

In reviewing these cases we find ourselves prescribing upon lines that are scientific, that is, lines where our knowledge enables us to strike out after conditions, unknown to us, with full confidence. Just as Hahnemann anticipated in advance the remedies Camphor, Cuprum and Veratrum album, which successfully combated Asiatic cholera.

Our knowledge is based upon the action of medicines upon the human body as a whole. This information is curative when similar conditions are found in the sick, and where sickness has no extended to organic changes, health is restored.

It is a very doubtful conclusion to claim that the potentized remedy will cure any growth or condition where cellular changes have occurred. Our field as physicians is to observe and cure changes in the health of people before malignant or organic conditions develop.

To this end how essential to know the history of the parents and relatives, and to link the symptoms of childhood and youth with those of old age. To advise in matters of diet as well, so that a properly balanced ration may prevent nervous diseases in the early part of life or the hardening of arteries and uncontrollable conditions in the aged.

A. S. Ironside