Chronic Diseases Miasms
Chronic Diseases Miasms
Chronic Diseases Miasms
Series
Chronic Disease
in Dr. Hahnemanns
Medical System
Preface
When, at the mature age of 73, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann made public
his ground-breaking discovery regarding the nemesis of medicine
chronic disease he hardly expected that discovery, or himself for that
matter, to be received warmly or openly, much less to be truly understood,
even by his followers. Many physicians of his time in Germany, and
increasingly elsewhere, had adopted the application of the ancient law of
similars based on his system of provings and the dynamized and
potentized dose he had pioneered. Yet he knew that what he had
discovered and was now revealing to his followers demanded a
comprehension that would stretch the limits of even those who had
accepted what he had already presented to the world, what he called
general homeopathy.
But in communicating to the world this great discovery, I am
sorry that I must doubt whether my contemporaries will realize
the consistency of these teachings of mine, and will imitate them
carefully and gain thereby the infinite benefits for suffering
humanity which must inevitably spring from a faithful and
accurate observance of the same; or whether, frightened away by
the unheard of nature of many of these disclosures, they will not
rather leave them untried and unimitated, and therefore unused.
At least I cannot hope that these important communications
will fare any better than the General Homeopathy which I have
published hitherto. (Chronic Diseases, SRD translation).
Haehl, Richard, Samuel Hahnemann, His Life and Work, Vol I, p. 148.
this new theory declared in 1836 that he had encountered not one
homeopath that agreed with it.2
On the one hand, the psora theory was seen in a materialistic sense
as being related largely and simply to the itch mite (scabies), yet on the
other it was seen abstractly as a concept not linked therapeutically to
homeopathy. Indeed, homeopathy could do without it in any case, given
that the essence lay in finding a remedy based on the symptoms of the
disease according to the law of similars.3
In either instance, the result was a profound misunderstanding of what
Hahnemann had discovered in his 7th decade of life. It seems as if many, if
not all of his followers thought that the Master had lost some of his
capacities in what seemed the twilight years of an already illustrious
career.
Today the prevailing situation regarding the understanding and
acceptance of the psora theory is little changed. Either the matter of the
chronic miasms is ignored, which is mostly the case, with few homeopaths
having bothered to read or study Chronic Diseases, Hahnemanns work on
this matter, or it is subsumed back into general homeopathy. The fact is
that the presence of a chronic miasm becomes a factor in the decision as to
which remedy should be selected from amongst the group that is identified
from a repertorisation. In both cases, the full import of Hahnemanns
discovery is misunderstood, essentially because of the wider and more
critical misunderstanding of Hahnemanns teachings regarding his new
medical system.
A good example of this thinking is the following: Schrn finds that the action of
homoeopathic remedies in chronic diseases is not founded on the theory of psora, but on
the truth of the law of similars. Homoeopathic cures have taken place before the advent
of the psora teaching; of the fifty remedies named in 1828 as antipsorics twenty-two had
been previously incorporated in our Medical treasury and have cured without their title
of nobility; chronic evils have been cured by remedies which do not belong to the
antipsorics. (Haehl, Vol II, p. 164)
ii
iii
iv
4
The term miasm was commonly in use in Hahnemanns day and referred to
some noxious, unseen influence in the air that made one sick. The term goes back to the
Greek and was used by Hippocrates to refer to a certain taint in the air that caused
disease, the precursor to the later germs of the air theory made famous by Louis
Pasteur, but it is important to understand that there is a world of difference between
Hahnemanns dynamic conception of disease and the more material one of Pasteur and
conventional medicine.
5
His followers seemed to think that the problem lay in the limited
number of medicines that were available to the homeopathic practitioner.
Hahnemann himself rejected this possibility and concluded that the
problem was not so much a quantitative one (more medicines) as a
qualitative one (deeper understanding of the underlying principles of
disease and treatment). This led him quickly to the discovery of the
venereal miasms, which were chronic, infectious and inheritable in nature.
It took another 10 years of close observation, however, to discover and
confirm the arch malady behind the many non-venereal diseases of
chronic nature (psora), as well as to determine new medicines to cure
them, as the hitherto store of medicines, while effective against true acute
diseases (that is, self-contained, self-limiting diseases), were of no use
against the chronic diseases derived from the chronic miasms.
The general discovery of the chronic miasms as the underlying
fundamental cause of the myriad of chronic diseases not only clarified a
compelling medical mystery and enhanced the therapeutic effectiveness of
his new system of medicine, but also brought Hahnemann back to his
initial fundamental discovery of the two types of disease those of a
fixed, static or constant nature and diseases mostly arising from them
having a more variable nature or essence. It also provided the critical basis
for the next momentous chapter in his lifes work the use of dual remedy
prescribing.6 Both of these aspects have been misunderstood, if not
ignored by his followers since, perhaps because they involve a deeper
understanding of disease and therapeutics than is contained in
conventional homeopathic texts, and Hahnemann was rightfully skeptical
of the reception his new discovery would receive even as he felt
compelled to share it with the world for the benefit of mankind.
3 At least I cannot hope that these important
communications will fare any better than the General
Homeopathy which I have published hitherto.
5 May they do better with the great discovery herewith
presented to them!
Based on the literature to date on this important topic, even in the last
few years, as well as the one-sided treatment of, and even lack of
treatment of the chronic diseases and miasms by the followers of Dr.
Hahnemann, it would seem that his fears have been borne out. Yet it lies
open to every practitioner of the true medical art, Heilkunst, to achieve the
success in treatment bequeathed by Dr. Hahnemann from a faithful
observance of his teachings on chronic disease. This book is dedicated to
the full understanding of his teachings and the fruitful application of his
insights to the many sufferers of chronic illness, as he had fervently
wished.
2: The Problem
By his own account, around 1816 Hahnemann began to have doubts
about the efficacy of the hitherto homeopathic method (treatment of
disease based on symptom similarity) despite its success in the true acute
diseases, including the epidemic and sporadic. He openly and honestly
describes the process he went through in facing these doubts in his second
seminal work, Chronic Diseases, which properly forms part of his more
occasional writings (the language and length, except for the materia
medica, is more in keeping with these).7
36.1 Using the more natural treatment, homeopathic
physicians have frequently been able in a short time to remove
the present chronic state of suffering which they had before
them, after examining it according to all the symptoms
perceptible to the senses... These improvements indeed far
excelled all that allopathy had ever in rare cases been able
to effect by a lucky grab into their medicine chests.
37.1 The complaints yielded for the most part to very
small doses... and, if the malady was not altogether too old and
had not been too much and in too great a degree spoiled by
allopathy, it often yielded for a considerable time, so that
mankind had good reason to deem itself fortunate even for
that much help, and, indeed, it often proclaimed its
thankfulness.
37.2 A patient thus treated might and often did consider
himself in pretty good health, when he fairly judged of his
present improved state and compared it with the far more
painful one before Homeopathy had afforded him its help.
It could be said with some justice that the Chronic Diseases, theoretical part, and
the various occasional writings collected as The Lesser Writings, form a parallel
Organon, intended to be read alongside of and in conjunction with the more aphoristic
Organon. Indeed, Hahnemann explicitly references several of the occasional writings, as
well as the Chronic Diseases, in the Organon.
37..2.1 Of this kind were the cures of psoric disease not yet
fully evolved, which had been treated by my followers with
remedies which did not belong to the number of those which,
later, proved to be the chief anti-psoric remedies, because
these remedies were not yet known. They had been merely
treated with such medicines as homeopathically best covered
and temporarily removed the then apparent moderate
symptoms, thus managing a kind of a cure which brought back
the emerging psora into a latent state, thus achieving a kind of
well-being, lasting for many years, especially in young,
vigorous persons, such as would appear as true health to
every inaccurately investigating observer.
37..2.2 But with chronic cases of fully evolved psora,
the medicines which were then known never sufficed for a
complete cure, any more than these same medicines suffice
presently.
38. Often even somewhat gross dietary sins, colds, the
onset of especially rough, wet and cold or stormy weather, or
even of autumn, however mild, but, more yet, winter and a
wintry spring, and then some violent mental or physical
exertion, but particularly some shock to the health caused by
some severe external injury, or a very sad event that bowed
down the mind, repeated fright, great grief, sorrow and
continuous vexation, often brought forth in a weakened body
(if the apparently cured disease had an already advanced
psora at its base) the re-appearance of one or more of the
sufferings which seemed already conquered, often aggravated
by some quite new occurrents, which, if not more serious than
those formerly dispatched homeopathically, were often just as
onerous and now more obstinate.
39. Sometimes a joyous lot, or an external situation of
circumstances improved by fortune, a pleasant journey, a
favorable season or dry, uniform weather conditions, might
produce a remarkable pause of shorter or longer duration in
the chronic malady of the patient, during which the
Homeopathist might consider him as fairly well recovered; and
the patient himself, if he good-naturedly overlooked some
passably moderate maladies, might consider himself as
Hahnemann knew from his study of the matter that the problem lay
not in the lack of known medicines but in his lack of knowledge of
disease. Homeopathy had proved efficacious against many diseases so the
problem was not that the law of similars was not universally valid
indeed it was but that there was a gap in the understanding of disease
and, therefore, the most effective application of that ancient law of cure.
He realized that the treatment to date, based on the prevailing symptoms,
did not constitute a full cure of the case; there remained hidden diseases
not visible in any symptoms and not treatable by his hitherto homeopathic
system of treatment.
41 And nevertheless this teaching itself was supported
upon the most unassailable pillars of truth and will evermore
be so. The attestation of its excellence, yea (so far as this can
be predicated of human affairs), of its infallibility, has been
laid before the eyes of the world through facts.
42. Homeopathy alone taught first how to cure the great
self-contained diseases, the old, smooth scarlet fever of
Sydenham, the more recent purples, whooping cough, croup,
sycosis, and autumnal dysenteries, by means of the
specifically aiding homeopathic remedies. Even acute pleurisy,
and typhous contagious epidemics must now allow themselves
to be speedily turned into health by a few small doses of
rightly- selected homeopathic medicine.
Hippocrates writings seem to be the first recorded use of the term miasm,
which has its origins in the Greek word for taint or fault. There was the understanding
that certain diseases were infectious in nature, that is, they were transmitted to humans by
tainted air and water in the form of entities called miasms. In Hahnemanns time it was a
common belief that miasms were impure airs, such as that from swamps, which were
responsible for the spread of epidemic diseases among groups of people. One of the
remedies for malaria, Malaria officianalis, was developed at least partly on the basis of
the view that it was the impure airs emanating from the swamp water that caused malaria.
10
What now emerged was that under the various chronic diseases,
which had seemed initially to be idiopathic diseases (that is, selfcontained), there existed more fundamental, primary chronic maladies of a
constant nature called chronic miasms.9
49.1 The continually repeated fact that the nonvenereal
chronic diseases, after being time and again removed
homeopathically in the best way by the remedies fully proved
up to the present time, always returned in a more or less
varied form and with new symptoms, or reappeared annually
with an increase of complaints, first disclosed to me:
that the homeopathic physician in such a chronic (nonvenereal) case, yea, in all cases of (non-venereal) chronic
disease, is not only dealing with the disease appearance before
his eyes, and should not view and treat it as if it were an
idiopathic disease, to be speedily and permanently expunged
11
12
The chronic, secondary diseases that arise from psora and the other
chronic miasms are determined by various factors:
394 The awakening of the internal psora, hitherto
slumbering and latent, having been held in check as it were by
a good bodily constitution and favorable external relations, as
well as its breaking out into more serious maladies and
sicknesses, is announced by the increase of the signs given
above as indicating the slumbering psora and also by a
numberless multitude of various other signs and complaints.
These are varied according to the distinct bodily constitution
of a person, his hereditary disposition, the various errors in
his education and habits, his manner of living and diet, his
employments, his spiritual direction, his morality, etc.
395 Then when the itch-malady evolves into a manifest
secondary disease
13
The venereal diseases did not present the same picture of suppression
and proliferation of disease as did the arch malady, which he termed
psora. He traced this miasm to an initial skin lesion, often undetected,
which was highly infectious through contact or exchange of clothing, and
could be inherited, and was able to discover medicines that had the power
to address the chronic diseases of psoric origin.
53.1 Gradually I learned of more helpful means against
this arch malady engendering so many sufferings, that is
against that which may be called by the general name of Psora
(the inner itch disease with or without its skin eruption). It
then dawned on me, due to the subsequent aid afforded by
using these medicines in similar chronic diseases for which
the patient was unable to identify such an infection, that also
these cases, in which the patient recalled no infection of this
kind, nevertheless had to have stemmed from a Psora
contracted perhaps already in the cradle, or communicated in
some other unrecallable fashion; and this often found
corroboration upon more careful inquiry with the parents or
aged relatives.
54.1 Exacting observation of the aid afforded by the
antipsoric means added in the first of these eleven years
taught me evermore how frequently the moderate, as well as
the more severe and the most severe, chronic diseases were of
this origin.
14
15
17
Feelings Gefhlen
18
19
10
21
22
23
The most fixed of these diseases were those for which medicine had
previously discovered the curative substance casu fortuito (by trial and
error), and by drawing on the established lore and practice of folk
medicine. This discovery of diseases of a fixed and constant nature led
Hahnemann to the discovery of one type of specific medicine, which could
be ascertained simply from the knowledge of the disease itself. Such
constant diseases as Hahnemann was able to determine at this point fell, as
we shall see, into the two dimensions of disease known as the homogenic
and pathogenic.
The earliest examples of pathogenic diseases were the self-limiting
infectious illnesses of childhood, such as measles and scarlet fever (these
we later identify as pathogenic diseases), and of homogenic diseases - the
traumatic injuries (e.g., falls, bruises, and emotional shocks). Hahnemann
referred to the remedies for the constant, fixed diseases as constant
specifics or peculiar remedies.
The second form of specific medicine arose because there seemed to
be maladies in which no fixed, constant nature was easily identifiable. The
disease nature was much more variable and difficult to diagnose. In such
24
25
26
The constant nature of disease and the constant specific relate to the
tonic side of the case, which is unific in nature (that is, involves data that
is wholistic and supersensible, such as objective feeling and state of
mind). The more variable disease varieties and the variable, individual
specific relate to the pathic side, which is prolific in nature (the expression
of the disease as manifested in the sensible data, or totality of
characteristic symptoms of the patient).
In essence, each disease has an underlying form and each disease also
often has a particular expression over time. However, the degree of
constancy of the form will be different for different diseases, and the
nature of the expression in terms of the data used by the physician will
also be different.
By an infinite number of trials of all imaginable simple
substances used in domestic practice, in a well-defined disease,
which shall constantly present the same characters, a true,
certainly efficacious, specific remedy for the greater number
of individuals and their friends suffering from the same
disease might certainly be discovered, though only casu
fortuito...
...The constant specific remedies in these few diseases
were capable of being discovered by means of trying every
imaginable medicinal substance, only because the thing to be
cured, the disease, was of a constant character; - they are
diseases which always remain the same; some are produced by
a miasm which constitutes the same through all generations,
such as the venereal disease; others have the same exciting
causes, as the ague of marshy districts, the goitre of the
inhabitants of deep valleys and their outlets, and the bruises
caused by falls and blows
Only for a want [disease] of a constant character can we
suppose a supply [remedy] of a constant character.
That it was requisite, in order to find out empirically the
proper remedy, that all diseases, for which the specific was
sought should be identical and preserve an invariable fixed
character, appears not to only have been surmised, but to have
been deeply felt by the medical community of the old school.
27
28
29
30
that were more complicated and formed varieties of this true disease. This
insight would later prove useful in Hahnemanns discovery of the chronic
diseases, both in terms of the simple, true disease and its many varieties.
31
32
33
34
Idiopathic Disease
Hahnemann often spoke of diseases that were specific, self-contained
and peculiar, in other words, idiopathic diseases. These were the true,
primary forms of disease. Such diseases were of an independent origin,
not being derived from other diseases.
The term he used was eigene und in sich abgeschlossenen Krankheit,
which we have translated as well-defined idiopathic diseases.
Websters New 20th Century Unabridged idiopathy
[Gr. idiopatheia, feeling for oneself alone, from idios, ones
own, peculiar, and pathos, feeling, suffering] an independent
disease, neither induced by nor related to another disease;
spontaneous or primary disease.
Tabers idiopathic [idio- Gr. idios, own]
Prefix indicating individual, distinct, or unknown.
Pert. to conditions without clear pathogenesis, or disease
without recognizable cause, as of spontaneous origin.
11
35
This led later to the more profound discovery of the use of dual remedies
to treat both types.12
80.1. Psora, that true fundamental cause and
engenderer of almost all remaining frequent, indeed countless
disease forms, a] which figure in the pathologies as their own
well-defined idiopathic diseases under the names of nerve
weakness, hysteria, hypochondria, mania, melancholy,
imbecility, raving, epilepsy, convulsions of all kinds, of
softening of the bone (Rhachitis), scrofula, scoliosis, and
kyphosis, bone caries, cancer, fungus hematodes, neoplasms,
gout, hemorrhoids, jaundice and cyanosis, dropsy,
amenorrhea and hemorrhage of the stomach, nose, lungs, from
the bladder and uterus, of asthma and suppuration of the
lungs, of impotence and infertility, of migraine, deafness,
cataract and amaurosis, kidney stones, paralyses, defects of
the senses and pains of a thousand kinds, etc.
42.1 Homeopathy alone taught first how to cure the great
self-contained diseases, the old, smooth scarlet fever of
Sydenham, the more recent purples, whooping cough, croup,
sycosis, and autumnal dysenteries, by means of the
specifically aiding homeopathic remedies.
Even acute pleurisy, and typhous contagious epidemics
must now allow themselves to be speedily turned into health
by a few small doses of rightly- selected homeopathic
medicine.
49.1. The continually repeated fact that the nonvenereal
chronic diseases, after being time and again removed
homeopathically in the best way by the remedies fully proved
up to the present time, always returned in a more or less
varied form and with new symptoms, or reappeared annually
with an increase of complaints, first disclosed to me:
that the homeopathic physician in such a chronic (nonvenereal) case, yea, in all cases of (non-venereal) chronic
12
36
The tonic side of disease does not have layers, as does the pathic side
(which must be peeled away as they emerge, their order not known until
then), but rather dimensions according to the nature of the causal agent.
HOMOGENIC DIMENSION
This dimension relates to the various accidents and injuries as
well as mental and emotional shocks. These are injuries that generally
affect each individual in the same way, creating blockages to the normal
flow of life energy. Thus, for each of these fixed, constant events, there
are also specific remedies. This is also the basis for first aid and the home
treatment of simple traumas, which can be done by almost anyone without
more extensive knowledge of Heilkunst. The emotional shocks are
generally more serious and can generate a host of mistunements of a
persons normal state of health. Hahnemann notes the effects of extended
grief, vexation and fear on ones health as being powerful triggers of the
latent chronic miasms.
93.1. If the disease has been caused by a remarkable
event, recently or, in the case of a protracted malady, some
time ago, the patient or at least the relations questioned in
37
38
PATHOGENIC DIMENSION
This is the dimension of natural diseases. Natural diseases are in the
nature of dynamic infections. Nature employs microbes as the carrier for
each particular disease. As you learned earlier, the disease attempts to
penetrate the Wesen or Dynamis of the human being. If successful, a
separate disease is engendered within us and develops along a predetermined path. If the disease is self-limiting (so-called acute), the Living
Principle is able eventually to recover once the disease has run its course,
through its counter-action. The main forms of pathogenic diseases are
epidemic and sporadic diseases and the chronic miasms.
IATROGENIC DIMENSION
Each medicine is capable of engendering an artificial disease. Thus, it
has the potential to harm as well as to cure. In very small doses, the
medicine seems to be mainly self-limiting in nature, allowing the
sustentive power of the Living Principle to re-establish balance relatively
easily.
In crude form, the medicine has a high risk of harming the human
organism, disturbing its healthy state and giving rise to abnormal
functioning, the more so the larger the dose and the longer the medicine is
applied. Eventually the medicine may penetrate the generative power and
engender a disease of its own. This is called iatrogenic disease (doctorcaused). Hahnemann was quite vocal in his criticism of this aspect of
allopathic medicine and was often pessimistic about the ability of
medicine to correct the damage caused by allopathic prescribing.
However, with the subsequent development of isodes, remedies made
from the medicine, we now have an effective curative method for dealing
39
with these man-made diseases, which are as much the scourge of our times
as in Hahnemanns day.
IDEOGENIC DIMENSION
Hahnemann was fully aware of the ability of suggestion (operating in
the context of ignorance or superstition) or false belief to generate disease,
even leading to death. These diseases involve dynamic affections, which
he called the highest disease. Originally, disease arose out of a
primordial split between the emotional and intellectual minds, which
derived from a lack of true knowledge, giving ground to belief or delusion.
17the highest disease can be brought to pass by
sufficient mistunement of the Living Principle by means of
imagination, and so, in the same manner, taken away again.
17.1.a]2 A premonitory dream, a superstitious fancy
or a solemn fateful prophecy of inevitable death on a certain
day or at a certain hour has not infrequently brought to pass
all signs of arising and increasing disease of approaching
death and death itself at the indicated hour which, without
simultaneous actuation of the internal alteration
(corresponding to the outwardly perceptible state), was not
possible; thus, in such cases from the same cause, all the
near-death-signaling disease features were in turn not
infrequently scared off by an artificial deception or
persuasion to the contrary and health suddenly again
established, which would not have been possible without
removal of the death-preparing internal and external
morbid alterations by means of these merely moral
remedies.
40
Each dimension or jurisdiction that arises from the genesis has its own
particular competence and principles by which cure and healing are
affected. All dimensions operate on the natural law of similarity of
resonance, but the nature of this resonance will vary according to the
nature of the genesis of disease:
Homogenic: resonance of specific irritant action. The focus in this
dimension is the irritant actions. Irritant actions involve both traumas and
toxins, both of which act on the life force. The traumas are further divided
into psychic (grief, fear, etc.) and somatic (physical accidents, surgeries,
etc.). The toxins are divided between those that act from outside
(exogenous) and those that are produced from within (endogenous). In the
realm of the homogenic, we have the principle of specific irritant action.
The first level (traumas) has been admirably addressed by Dr. Jean
Elmiger of Switzerland with his isotherapeutic system of the sequential
treatment of traumas (see his book, Rediscovering Real Medicine), and the
second (toxins) by Dr. Reckeweg in his comprehensive system of tissue
detoxification at the humoral and cellular level called homotoxicology
Kent himself also realized later in life, based on close observation, that
tissue change required the prescription of remedies based on that change, not
the psychic state.
As Eizayaga expresses it,
During the last years of his active life as a physician, Kent
published a most interesting article entitled Remedies related
to pathological changes in the tissues. In it Kent expresses
diametrically opposed ideas to those known by everybody in
his Homeopathic Philosophy, surely on account of his
remarkable clinical experience and his acute observation of
reality.
41
42
action (aequilia aequilibus curentur), but the use of isodes, which is very
different (see footnote 56 of the Organon).
Pathogenic: resonance of pathogen. This is the realm of infection.
Pathological signs are emphasized. Here we have a principle of disease,
which leads to the use of isodes (remedies made from the disease agent) or
nosodes (products made from disease discharges).
Ideogenic: resonance of psychic state. Emphasis here is on the
behavior, which exhibits and demonstrates the core delusion (arch-belief).
The principle is one of matching the psychic state of the patient with the
remedy. However, in some cases, the use of the Law of Opposites comes
into play (see 226 where Hahnemann talks of using psychotherapeutic
means and appropriate living habits to treat those truly psychic diseases
that are not of long-standing).
Within each of these dimensions we have relationships based on the
form of the disease. Goethe was the first to speak of the form or
morphology of something as being the underlying nature that is not
sensible (open to the senses) but supersensible (open to our higher organs
of knowledge, involving kenning).
Homogenic: a relationship with the irritant action (homomorphic).
Iatrogenic: a relationship with the drug (isomorphic)
Pathogenic: a relationship with the pathogen (pathomorphic)
Ideogenic: a relationship with the belief (core delusion)
(ideomorphic)
The Heilknstler needs to decide where to go to settle the case, and at
which level, in accordance with Aphorism 3.
The Heilknstler decides the competent jurisdiction to begin the case,
and prosecutes according to the principles of treatment valid in that
jurisdiction. He then proceeds, according to the hierarchy of jurisdictions,
up the scale.
43
45
possible, to the periphery of the organism where it can do the least harm
and is visible to the physician so that he can effect a cure.
However, if the natural law of cure is not followed the treatment only
provides temporary relief (palliative) or it suppresses the expression of the
disease on the skin and forces the Living Power to set up a line of defense
deeper in the organism, affecting more important (what Hahnemann called
more noble) organs.
46
47
48
This view may have been an attempt to avoid the divisiveness that
Hahnemanns psora theory had occasioned amongst the body of
homeopathic doctors in Germany and elsewhere, but it also reflected a
significant view then and since, namely that the theory of psora had little
to do with the selection of the remedy for the pathic disease for a given
case, which was still to be chosen on the basis of symptom similarity. This
is in accord, at least on this narrow point, with Hahnemanns own
statement:
899 The homeopathic medical treatment of the countless
chronic diseases (non-venereal and therefore of psoric origin)
agrees essentially with the homeopathic treatment of human
diseases in general as taught in the Organon of the Remedial
Art
49
This reflects what Hahnemann taught; indeed, it formed the basis for
his discovery of the chronic miasms in the first place.
.194.1. then (as not rarely) the acute local malady was
a flare up of a hitherto internally dormant Psora which is on
the verge of evolving itself into an overt chronic disease.
50
that you can find about the case, yet what do they do? They
palliate; they repress the symptoms; but your asthma is no
better off, your patient is not cured.
Today, this view is found in the computer programs that list remedies
by miasmatic category to aid in the selection of the correct medicine for
each case where chronic miasms are detected. A comprehensive approach
to miasmatic prescribing that has taken Allens method into the current era
is the recent book by Dr. S. K. Banerjea, Miasmatic Prescribing. In this
book, Hahnemanns sequential approach to the layers of chronic disease,
plus the removal of the various layers of suppression by allopathic
treatment, is set out in detail, based on a knowledge of the indications of
each chronic miasm and the anti-miasmatic medicines.
There is only one approach if a complete cure is sought
and this is to systematically remove each layer of suppression
and miasmatic dyscrasia before proceeding to nip the
underlying cause of disease in the bud. (p. iv)
Clinical experience has shown that the best way to open
up these [one-sided, suppressed] cases is from the miasmatic
viewpoint
Once the outer layer is removed the second layer is
revealed. The second layer in turn becomes the surface miasm,
reflecting a different group of symptoms. Dr. Kent guides us
here, stating that there now has to be a change in the plan of
treatmentThe totality of the case needs to be reassessed and
the next prescription selected on the basis of the totality of
symptoms including the miasmatic symptomology. (p. 2-3)
51
At the same time, the use of nosodes for the treatment of miasms
generally was developed during the last 200 years. J. Compton Burnett
and Marjory Blackie in England were great proponents of the use of
nosodes to treat for the various infectious diseases of a fixed nature, the
true acute miasms, such as the epidemic, sporadic diseases and the
childhood illnesses. Nosodes for all the acute miasms were developed and
used with great effect, such as Variolinum for smallpox or Morbillinum for
measles.
If the acute miasms can be treated directly by means of nosodes,
being the exact simillimum (or the most similar medicine), then why not
the chronic miasms? In practical terms, the homeopathic literature is
53
replete with clinical use of the chronic nosodes to unblock cases (termed
by Randall Neustadter the hidden case), representing an unconscious
attempt to cure the underlying chronic miasm, although the matter is
clouded by the use of the abstraction blockage, leaving out
Hahnemanns very real Potence of disease.
Nosodes
The nosodes are as specific for the chronic miasm as for the acute,
capturing the essence of the disease in the characteristic discharge.
Whereas the chronic diseases are to be treated on the basis of the
homeopathic specific (that is, on the basis of the symptom picture or
image of the disease), the chronic miasms are to be treated using the
homotonic specific, which is the nosode. Sankaran rightly terms the
nosode the centre-point of the miasm.
The use of nosodes is still controversial despite over two centuries of
use because the nature of disease in Hahnemanns system of medicine is
little understood. Within homeopathy the use of nosodes can only be
sanctioned based on selection according to the symptom picture of the
disease. On this basis, the prescribing of nosodes on a causal basis is
rejected. It is rightly not part of homeopathy, which is symptom-driven,
but it is a rightful part of Heilkunst, Hahnemanns more comprehensive
system of medicine.
While many writers and commentators state that the use of nosodes or
isodes (so-called isopathy) was rejected by Hahnemann, it is clear from
any study of what Hahnemann actually stated that he rejected the false
version of the use of nosodes, but fully incorporated them within
Heilkunst and the law of similar resonance (see section on Isopathy)
54
13
55
Elmiger also realized, as did Hahnemann and some others, that the
true simillimum for the chronic miasm was the relevant nosode or
biotherapuetic.
it is impossible to cure these illnesses definitively
without the help of the corresponding major biotherapeutic
By not understanding this fairly simple truth, the great
majority of contemporary homeopaths still fail too often in the
every bit as simple cure of many repeated illnesses. They say
that they are strict Kentists or Hahnemannians and respect
the Law of Similarity to the letter, but they have not grasped
its essence. They deceive their patients by proposing a lifetime
of the remedies that are suggested by Kents repertory, while
one high potency of an appropriate major biotherapeutic
would be enough to erase the weighty predisposition that the
patient has inherited. Hahnemann wouldnt have hesitated to
use these prodigious weapons if they had been at his disposal,
since they represent the final accomplishment of his creative
thought process brought to fruition by Hering and Nebel. (p.
215-216)
56
57
Dr. Elmiger also discovered that at the higher potencies there was a
relationship between a particular miasm and a season, so that treating for
the miasm in the relevant season was even more efficacious.
As long as I was involved only in the EI sequence there
was no real reason for me to be concerned about the depth of
the activity. Doses of XM are active for only about 6 weeks and
the patients reactions can be monitored from one visit to the
next. But the situation is totally different with doses of LM
[50M], which as I have said, are really long-range missiles.
Two to three months are required by the organism to execute
fully the condensed vibrational instructions of an LM dose.
The doctor can therefore prescribe each of the four great
remedies only once a year
And suddenly it was clear somewhere in my right brain:
the four predispositions were the daughters, or at least the
cousins, of the four seasons. I immediately verified this
intuition by submitting it to the double test of practice and
comparative radiesthesic analysis, and I made a surprising
58
psora
winter
tuberculosis
spring
sycosis
summer
syphilis
59
60
fourth, giving us two venereal (sycosis and syphilis) and two nonvenereal, puritic miasms of a chronic nature.
By and large, the classical literature has confirmed and followed this
four-fold nature of the chronic miasms and also Hahnemanns meaning of
miasm as being an infectious disease of fixed or static nature. Indeed, we
have Elmigers fuller development and unfolding of Hahnemanns
observations regarding the sequence of treatment of these archetypal force
fields in his Law of Succession of Forces. There has also been the
acceptance of the distinction between acute and chronic concerning the
inheritable nature of the latter and not the former.
However, more recently there has been a tendency to call many things
miasms, both of acute and chronic nature. This arises because of the
prevailing ignorance concerning the nature of disease and Hahnemanns
disease classification (nosology). This mainly is due to the one-sided
understanding of Hahnemanns system of medicine as being only the
treatment of disease based on the symptoms of the patient, which has
reduced disease to being the totality of symptoms of the patient, ignoring
the fact that, as Hahnemann pointed out, a person can have more than one
disease at a time. The history of this conflation and uniformitarianism has
been laid out in great detail in our earlier work, The Dynamic Legacy:
From Homeopathy to Heilkunst.
Lets look at some of the writings. One of the few practitioners
writing extensively on the issue of philosophy, albeit on a more
speculative basis, is Rajan Sankaran. In Substance of Homopathy he first
makes clear that there can be several chronic miasms in a given case and
also that it is critical to know the miasms in order to prescribe correctly.
There can be and usually are two or more miasms in a
case, though only one is prominent at a time. (p. 34)
61
Of course this fits in with the classical orthodoxy, which sees the
chronic miasms only as a tool to finding the right remedy, not as a disease
to be treated in their own right. Sankarans first departure from
Hahnemann is in the characterization of the acute miasm. In Sankarans
view it is only an acute state, not something that has an infectious nature
(that is, of the pathogenic dimension of the constant or tonic diseases). So,
the acute miasm becomes simply an acute disease.
An immediate, strong response like high fever, bounding
pulse, flushed face etc. as in Belladonna or Aconite. (p. 26)
62
63
Tubercular
Leprosy
ACUTE Typhoid PSORA Ringworm SYCOSIS
SYPHILIS
Malaria
Cancer
64
65
tuberculosis
sycosis
syphilis
66
67
theme of dryness most pronounced, and also that of withering away and a
sense of contraction and closing in.
Tuberculosis the essence of this disease state is restlessness, the
desire to escape from the encroaching limits of the psoric state. There is no
sense of peace in the present, but a continual need to move, preferably to
higher ground (> mountains), but where they then feel the constriction in
their heart, forcing them to move to descend. They feel caught between
opposing forces and seem condemned to wander the earth without repose.
There is an increasing sense of lack of connection with life as manifested
in the lung symptoms. The paleness and weakness also speaks to the
increasing lack of vitality.
Sycosis This disease state represents a desperate attempt to break
out of the enclosing contractive forces. The level of energy increases and
becomes almost hyper in nature. There is a high degree of irritability that
can explode into anger and rage if provoked. The desperate attempt to reconnect to life against the impinging disease states leads to a hedonistic
rush into sensate experience (sex, drugs, rock n roll). There is strong
inflammatory response throughout the organism to try to dissolve the
sclerotic, contractive forces, producing all the itises of medicine.
Syphilis Here we see the final breakdown of the individual at all
levels: the acts of self-destruction through addictive behavior, leading in
cases to suicide; the descent into madness; the lack of conscience;
addictions, withdrawal from society in essence the expression of the
human creative energy with few or no restraints coming from the spiritual
or natural domain. The organism feels trapped and no longer struggles
against the dying of the light (Dylan Thomas), but gives itself over to
the forces of gravity and darkness.
68
other factors being equal. This similarity of the seasons energy with that
of a disease allows the forces of the disease to act more forcefully on the
human organism, even in health. To the extent that we have the chronic
miasm in us, the effects will be all the greater, due to the arousing of the
slumbering giant within.
Thus:
Psora and Autumn - The energy of the Fall is one of a lack, of
drying leaves and dying vegetation, of the dimming of the light, of
lowering heat, that is, essential of an approaching encroachment or
compression.
Tuberculosis and Winter - The emergence of respiratory viruses,
coughs, and similar ailments in winter needs no reminder. We also see, at
least in the more extreme northern latitudes, where the contrasts of
temperature and climate are more pronounced, the great desire for travel
and escape that drives the tubercular state of mind.
Sycosis and Spring - The energy of spring, with its promise of
growth, heat and the return of energy has an expansive, youthful quality
reflecting the swelling of the buds of trees and bushes, the re-emergence
of the earths green cover, and the rising of the sap of life in plants,
animals and humans. It is in spring that we feel most alive and that we
partake of life with most abandon, with the greatest energy and joie de
vivre.
Syphilis and Summer - The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer have
a decadent, languorous quality to them. There is an element of underlying
decay amidst the profusion of growth, an increase in bacterial and
microbial growth generally, and the feeling of lushness without any real
goal or product. What we see in summer is the height of the Ancient
Regime in the decadent court of the Sun King, but a perceptive observer
can already discern the signs of decline and the eventual fall into madness
from the self-indulgent and almost self-destructive actions of an
aristocracy that has lost touch with its roots.
69
70
with the later prevalence of ringworm. Later, in the first half of the 20th
century, we can see the rise of the inflammatory conditions, primary
allergies and a more materialistic life-style typical of the dominance of
sycosis, followed by the rise of cancer from an isolated disease to a plague
upon the land. We are now witnessing the emergence of syphilis to its
time of dominance in the form of the growing autoimmune disorders, selfdestructive behaviors in adolescents, fascination with death and the dark
side of human nature, pornography, war in the form of terrorism involving
civilian populations, and such things as flesh-eating disease.
71
8: Conclusion
The concept of miasm is a critical part of Hahnemanns medical
system in terms of the categorization of disease and its treatment. It refers
to diseases of infectious origin that have a constant nature (tonic diseases).
Those miasms that also have the capacity to be passed on from generation
to generation are distinguished from those of a purely temporary nature by
being termed chronic.
Tonic diseases, or diseases of constant nature, are further primary
diseases because they have a causal agent that, once identified, can be
used as the basis for the selection of the curative medicine according to the
dimension of the disease. In the case of the miasms, because they are of
infectious origin they belong to the pathogenic dimension of tonic disease.
The curative agent is derived from the principle of a fixed, static
relationship between the microbial, infectious agent, the disease and the
curative agent itself, according to the law of similar resonance.
Thus the nosode, made from the disease discharge of a particular
patient suffering from a fixed, static disease (such as measles), will always
be the curative medicine as it contains the infectious principle within it.
This enables the selection of the curative remedy without reference to
symptoms, but simply on knowledge of the causal agent (or recognition of
the static disease due to its constant nature). It also enables in new cases
never before seen or treated, where the infectious nature of the disease is
clear or suspected, to use disease discharge to make the curative agent on
the spot, again without the need for reference to the symptoms produced.
This is what Hahnemann referred to as true causal prescribing. It is not
homeopathy, which is the prescribing for the diseases or variable nature
based on the symptom picture, but it is a valid and important part of his
broader system of medicine, Heilkunst. We can term it homotonic
prescribing.
Those diseases that arise not from an outer cause, but simply are the
product of the evolution of a primary disease within the bodily
constitution over time as it engenders itself more and more into the
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
Annexes
Annex A: Wesen
This is a key term used by Dr. Hahnemann, one that has been lost as a
result of previous translations of his work, until the fully accurate
translations of Steven Decker. The term Wesen is difficult to translate into
English because it has many meanings: genius, essence, substance,
creature, living thing, nature or entity.
A Wesen is a dynamic entity that permeates the whole of something.
It cannot be divided from that which it permeates (except conceptually). It
has no mass; rather, it is energetic in nature. It is similar to the term
genius, used by the romantic philosophers of the 19th Century such as
Coleridge, as well as by contributors to our Materia Medica.
The Living Power is exponential to the human Wesen. The Wesen
cannot be a property of something, but only the essence itself. Hahnemann
makes clear in various passages that the Living Power has properties, that
is, that it can be lowered or raised (see footnote to 60 or 288) and that
there is a supply of Living Power (Introduction).
60.1.a]6 For Broussais it was only necessary to tone down
the Living Power of the patient, to lower it more and more and
see! the more frequently he had him bled and the more he had
the vital humour sucked out of him by leeches and cupping
glasses (for the innocent irreplaceable blood was supposed to be
guilty of almost all sufferings), the more the patient lost the
power to feel pains or to express his aggravated state by
vehement complaints and gestures.
288.2. This remedial power, often foolishly denied or
reviled for an entire century, being a wonderful inestimable gift
of God granted to humanity, by means of which the Living Power
of the healthy mesmerist gifted with this power dynamically
streams into another human being by touch and even without the
same, indeed even at some distance, by the powerful will of a
well-intentioned individual (like one of the poles of a powerful
80
81
What happens to the individual is, in large part, shaped by the action of the
individuals Wesen in interaction with his Geist (intellectual mind). If we
have an accident this is a manifestation, at least partly, of the action of the
Wesen. The actions of the human Wesen are themselves the result in part
of the influence of the disease Wesen(s) that have engendered themselves
in our Wesen.
As we have learned, some diseases have a fixed Wesen, which
remains the same (acute and chronic miasms, shocks and traumas); others
are unique and changeable (sporadic and epidemic diseases).
While the disease agent might be mediated through a microbe, as it
invariably is in natural diseases (e.g., scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, etc.),
the microbe itself has a supersensible reality, or Wesen. It is the Wesen of
the microbe that seeks to penetrate the energetic reality of the person.
Unless this can be done, there will be only a disturbance, temporarily, of
the normal state of health (such as tiredness and a dragged-down feeling
rather than full-blown illness). The microbe moves on to seek another
victim and the person quickly recovers his slightly disturbed equilibrium.
There are also many cases where our Living Power is disturbed, such
as through lack of sleep and poor nutrition, which upsets our normal
functioning. However, these are more in the way of indispositions,
correctable through adjustments to our regimen (e.g., rest and proper
nutrition). If they continue long enough, however, they may eventually
damage the Living Power to the point that medical intervention is
required.
To understand what else disease is beyond simply a disturbance of the
Living Power, we need to understand a fundamental and unique
contribution of Hahnemann to our knowledge of disease, namely the
uncovering of the dual nature of that Power.
82
Annex B: Wesengeschicte
History of Psora
Hahnemann sets out the history of the constant nature of psora, making
clear that it is not to be reduced to scabies, but involves a dynamic internal
itch, which comes from the engenderment of this primordial disease state
in the generative side (erzeugungskraft) of the Living Power. Banerjea, in
his recent work on the chronic diseases, underlines this fact as well (see p.
25, 32-33 of his work).
74 Just as protracted as syphilis or sycosis, and therefore
just as unquenchable before the last breath of the longest
human life, unless thoroughly cured, since not even the most
robust constitution is able to annihilate and extinguish it by its
own proper strength, Psora, or the Itch disease, is besides the
oldest and most hydra-headed of all the chronic miasmatic
diseases.
76 The oldest monuments of history which we possess
show the Psora even then in great development. Moses* 3400
years ago pointed out several varieties. At that time and later
on among the Israelites, Psora seems to have mostly kept to
the external parts of the body for its chief seat as well as
during the times of uncultivated Greece, later in Arabia, and
lastly in Europe during the Middle Ages.
The different names which were imparted by different
nations to the more or less malignant varieties of leprosy (the
external symptoms of Psora), which in many ways deformed
the external parts of the body, do not further my purpose and
add nothing to the matter, since the nature (Wesen) of this
miasmatic itching eruption always remained essentially the
same.
78 The occidental Psora, which, during the Middle Ages,
had raged in Europe for several centuries under the form of
malignant erysipelas (called St. Anthonys Fire), reassumed
the form of leprosy through the leprosy which was brought
back by the returning crusaders in the thirteenth century.
83
84
85
Origin of Psora
Hahnemann does not give us the original source of psora saying only
that it pre-dates human memory and history. Kent provides us a clue in
linking the susceptibility to psora to an innate corruptibility of man, a form
of spiritual sickness that leads eventually to the creation of psora as a
disease and miasm. The idea, which is contained in all cultures and
philosophies, is that of the fall of man from a state of perfection to one of
imperfection, which allows for error and indiscretions.
Thus, psora becomes a disease state engendered by errors of omission,
that is, the failure to live right, both spiritually, mentally, emotionally and
physically. Hahnemann points out that it is the indiscretions of diet as well
as the burdens of emotional stress that are the particular arousers of the
already existent, though dormant, latent psora. If so, then they must have
been involved in its engenderment in the first place to have the power,
even in seemingly minor events, to call up the power of the miasm to
action.
379 But still, even with such favorable external relations,
as soon as this person advances in age, even slight occasions
(a moderate vexation, a cold, or an error in diet, etc.), can
produce a violent (though brief) surge of disease: a severe
colic, chest or throat inflammation, erysipelas, fever and the
like - attacks whose severity stands in no relation to their
moderate exciting cause. These are mostly wont to eventuate.
380 Where however a person with an internally
slumbering psora, be it a child or an adult, having much
semblance of health, gets into the opposite of the aboveindicated favorable relations of life, when, for example, his
condition and whole organism have been very much weakened
and shaken by a prevalent epidemic fever or an infectious
acute disease,*
382 smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever,
purple rash, etc, or through an external severe injury, a shock,
a fall, a wound, a significant burn, the breaking of an arm or a
leg, a hard labor, hospitalization (usually egged on by
incorrect and weakening allopathic treatment), confinement
86
87
88
89
In this sense, Kent was right to identify that the beginning of psora
was due to a spiritual weakness.
It is altogether too extensive, for it goes to the very
primitive wrong of the human race, the very first sickness of
the human race, that is the spiritual sickness, from which first
state of the race progressed into what may be called the true
susceptibility to psora, which in turn laid the foundation for
other diseases. (quoted from Banerjea, p. 33)
However, we cannot ignore the weakness that must also exist at the
other pole of man, as set out in Aphorisms 9 and 10 of the Organon,
namely the Dynamis, in addition to the Spiritus.
90
Kents View
Both Kent and Allen, and others since, have put forth the idea that
psora is a form of original sin and thus, that psora is the mother of all
disease.
Kent: Psora is the beginning of all physical sickness. Had
psora never been established as a miasm upon the human
race, the other two chronic diseases would have been
impossible, and susceptibility to acute diseases would have
been impossible. All the diseases of man are built upon psora;
hence it is the foundation of all sickness; all other sickness
came afterwards. (quoted from Banerjea, p. 34)
J.H. Allen: psora is the primary manifestation of
primordial sin, of the primary curse, the prophetic fulfillment
of thou shalt surely die. (quoted in Banerjea, p. 33)
91
First, there were and are acute diseases that exist independently of
psora, such as the acute miasms, which are themselves idiopathic in nature
and of a primary, constant cause.
. 5.1. As remedial aids, the data of the most probable
occasion of the acute disease as well as the most significant
factors in the entire history of the protracted sickness serve
the physician in finding out its [disease] fundamental cause,
which mostly [but not entirely] rests on a chronic miasm,
whereby there is to be taken into account
14
92
which was so widespread and ancient, was really the base for all other
disease, despite Hahnemanns clear statements to the contrary. What
Hahnemann stated is the fact that most of the chronic diseases of his time
(less so today) had psora as their direct cause. The others were caused by
syphilis and sycosis.
90 Thus was PSORA the most universal mother of chronic
diseases.
.79.1. Hitherto, Syphilis alone was known to some extent
as such a chronic miasmatic disease, which, uncured, expires
only with the end of life.
.79.2. The uncured Sycosis (Figwart disease), likewise
ineradicable by the Living Power, was not recognized as being
an internal chronic miasm of its own kind as it however
indisputably is, and believed it to be cured by destruction of
the outgrowths on the skin without heeding the continuing
residual sickness.
.80.1. Immeasurably more widespread, consequently
more significant than both [of the above] named is the
internal, monstrous, chronic miasm of Psora-- Psora, that
true fundamental cause and engenderer of almost all
remaining frequent, indeed countless disease forms,a] which
figure in the pathologies as their own self-contained diseases
under the names of nerve weakness, hysteria, hypochondria,
mania, melancholy, imbecilityetc.
There is also the erroneous view that psora is the cause of acute
disease, but this is a mis-reading of what Hahnemann wrote. Where psora
was suppressed, this could lead to acute diseases as well, but the cause
here is the suppression, not psora itself. The first statement has to be read
in conjunction with the second, which provides the context:
72 PSORA is that oldest, most universal, most destructive,
and yet most misapprehended chronic miasmatic disease
which for many thousands of years has disfigured and
tortured mankind, and which during the last centuries has
become the mother of all the thousands of incredibly various
93
94
among the class of remaining proven medicines (not antipsoric), must, likewise, to be sure, in the beginning, as
generally in the case of acute diseases which resemble the
often very virulent alternating fevers with regard to their
Psoric origin, first be employed several days for the most
possible help; if, however, the recovery is nevertheless delayed
hereby, then we must be aware that we are dealing with Psora
close to its evolution and that here only anti-psoric medicine
can provide radical help.
95
96
97
98
Inherited Effects
More astoundingly, Dr. Batmanghelidj found that the effects of
chronic dehydration could be inherited.
The established signal-producing chronic dehydration also
has a permanently damaging impact on subsequent
descendants of the person. (Your Bodys Many Cries for Water,
p. 7)
15
This is set out in more detail in The Dynamic Legacy: from Homeopathy to
Heilkunst by the same authors.
99
100
101
16
102
of them. The essence of psora is also that of deficiency and lack at all
levels.
Psora is further characterized by a kind of voluptuous itching, which
gives great relief on scratching, but then becomes burning and itches even
more. Here we can see the suppressed generative power of the Life
Principle (Dynamis) attempting expression (counter action) at the very
periphery of the organism.
Latent Symptoms of Psora
180.17 dryness in the nose
180.25 dryness of the [head]
180.40 dryness in the mouth
180.57 dry skin on the limbs
Signs of Awakened Psora
189.73 Feeling of dryness in the nose
189.84 The red of the lips is dry, scabby, peeling off; it chaps
189.103 Tongue dry
189.104 Feeling of dryness on the tongue, even while it is properly
moist
189.108 Sensation of dryness of the whole internal mouth
189.286 Dry cough
189.370 Dryness of the (epidermal) skin either on the whole body,
with inability to sweat or perspire in any noticeable way through
motion and heat, or only in some parts.*
189.370*Especially on the hands, the outer side of the arms and legs,
and even in the face; the skin is dry, rough, parched, feels chapped,
and often has scales like bran
103
104
chlorine from the acid), which needs to be removed by a backwashing process that is dependent on an adequate water
supply.
Thus, water provides the only natural protection against
the acid in the stomach, from base upward. Antacids are
designed to attach to the acid in the stomach itself - an
inefficient protection. (Your Bodys Many Cries for Water,
p. 31)
105
106
107
Colitis pain
189.183 Pressure in the abdomen as from a stone.*
189.183* Which often rises to the pit of the stomach, digging and
causing vomiting.
189.184 Hardness of the abdomen.
189.185 Crampy colic, a grasping pain in the bowels.
189.186 In colic, coldness on one side of the abdomen.
189.187 A gurgling, croaking and audible rumbling and grumbling in
the abdomen.*
189.187* At times only in the left side of the abdomen, passing
upwards with the inspiration and downward with the expiration.
189.188 So-called uterine spasms, like labor pains, grasping pains
often compelling the patient to lie down, frequently quickly
distending the abdomen without flatulence.
189.189 In the lower abdomen, pains pressing down toward the
genitals.*
189.189* Pressing down as if to cause a prolapsus, and when it is
passed she feels heavy in all her limbs, the limbs go to sleep; she must
stretch and extend her limbs.
Rheumatoid arthritis
189.320 In the joints a sort of tearing, like scraping on the bone, with
a red, hot swelling which is insufferably sensitive to the touch and to
the air, with insufferably sensitive, peevish disposition (gout, podagra,
chiragra, gout in the knees, etc.).*
189.320*The pains are either worse in daytime, or at night. After
every attack, and when the inflammation is past, the joints of the hand
are painful, as also those of the knee, the foot, those of the big toe
when moved, when he stands up, etc., they feel intolerably benumbed
and the limb is weakened.
108
189.321 The joints of the fingers, swollen with pressive pains, painful
when touching and bending them.
189.322 Thickening of the joints; they remain hard swollen, and there
is pain on bending them.
189.323 The joints, as it were, stiff, with painful, difficult motion, the
ligaments seem too short.*
189.323* E.g., the Achilles tendon while treading, stiffness of the
tarsus, of the knees, either transient (after sitting, when rising), or
permanent (contraction).
189.324 Joints, painful on motion.*
189.324* E.g., the shoulder-joint on raising the arm; the tarsus pains
on treading as if it was about to break.
189.325 Joints crack on moving, or they make a snapping noise.
189.326 The joints are easily sprained or strained.*
189.326* E.g., the tarsus, the wrist-joint, the joint of the thumb.
189.327 Increasing disposition to strain oneself upon lifting and, as is
said, to do oneself harm upon very slight exertion of the muscles,
even in small manual tasks, in reaching up or stretching for something
up high, in lifting things that are not heavy, when suddenly turning
the body, pushing, etc. Such a slight flexing or stretching of the
muscles often then brings about long confinement in bed, swoons, all
grades of hysterical troubles.
189.329 The joints are easily dislocated upon any false movement.*
189.329* E.g. the tarsus when taking a false step, so also the
shoulder-joint. Of this kind is also the gradual luxation of the hip-joint
(i.e., of the head of the femur from the acetabulum, when the leg then
becomes too long, or too short, causing limping).
189.330 In the joint of the foot there is pain on treading, as if it would
break.
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Headaches
189.21 Headache daily at certain hours; e. g., a stitching in the
temples.
189.22 Attacks of throbbing headache (e. g., in the forehead) with
violent nausea as if about to sink down, or, also, vomiting; from
morning till evening, repeated every fortnight, or sooner or later.
189.23 Headache as if the skull were about to burst open.
189.24 Headache, drawing pains.
189.25 Headache, jerks of the head (passing out at the ears).
189.26 Headache, stitches in the head (passing out at the ears).
Anginal pain
189.290 Violent, at times unbearable stitches in the chest at every
breath; cough impossible for pain; without inflammatory fever
(spurious pleurisy).
189.291 Pain in the chest on walking, as if the chest was about to
burst.
189.292 Pressive pain in the chest, at deep breathing or at sneezing.
189.293 Often a slightly constrictive pain in the chest, which, when it
does not quickly pass, causes the deepest dejection.*
189.294 Burning pain in the chest.
189.295 Frequent stitches in the chest, with or without cough.
189.296 Violent stitches in the side; with great heat of the body, it is
almost impossible to breathe in, on account of stitches in the chest
with hemoptysis and headache; he is confined to his bed.
Stress and depression
189.10 Vertigo, passing over into unconsciousness.
189.11 Dizziness; inability to think or to perform mental labor.
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111
112
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histamine production.
Water is needed in the lungs to keep the air passages
moist... In the first stages of asthma, mucus is secreted to
protect the tissues. There comes a time that much mucus is
secreted and it stays put, preventing normal passage of air
through the airways. Sodium is a natural mucus breaker...
People with asthma should slightly increase their salt intake.
(Your Bodys Many Cries for Water, p. 120)
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- Psorinum
tuberculosis
- Tuberculinum
sycosis
- Medorrhinum
syphilis
- Syphilinum
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Isopathy
The terms isopathy and isodes encapsulate the development of
the tonic side of disease. Hahnemann criticized the use of the principle of
equality on which isopathy is based, rightfully seeing it as only a variant
of the law of similars (as true isopathy is what allopaths use, such as in
vaccinations, with all its attendant disease effects). He accepted that the
remedies chosen on the basis of their relationship to the disease material
(containing the disease potence) were a valid application of the law of
similar resonance and were the missing link to the treatment of the tonic
diseases.
So-called isopathic remedies represent another dimension of disease
and treatment involving a relationship to disease agent, whether infectious
(natural, i.e., existing in nature) or poisons, both natural (e.g., snake bites
or toxic metals) or medicinal (synthetic, i.e., man-made). The use of such
remedies is a variant of the law of similars.
Dioscorides: recommends the use of the liver of the dog that has
bitten a person, grilled earthworms to get rid of worms, the flesh of
the viper and crushed scorpion that have bitten one. He also stated
the principle that where there is the disease, there is also the
remedy.
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Paracelsus: The similars cure the similars, the scorpion cures the
scorpion, mercury cures mercury. The poison is mortal for man
except, if in the organism there is another poison with which it
may fight, in which case the patient regains his health.
(Compendium philosophae, 1568). Paracelsus used very weak
doses of the poisons.
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the use of disease agents to treat and prevent against acute diseases
(sporadic and epidemic diseases such as the plague and anthrax).
It is interesting that Herings wide-ranging research and inquiries led
him into other areas such as the use of organ remedies and tissue salts.
Hering speculated that some products of the human body and some parts
of the healthy organism had a more particular action on the parts from
which they are derived (Stapfs Archiv fr die homopathische Heilkunst,
14-2, pp. 98-99). Hering also speculated that various chemical elements
found in the organism would have a particular effect on the organs in
which they can be principally found (Archiv, 13-3, p. 65 and 14-3, p. 14).
Scabby of sheep
Tinea of animals
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Pus of syphilis
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120
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122
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125
126
of disease agents, isopathics were valid. What was not valid was the
argument that this dimension of the law of similars was somehow a new
law. It was simply a principle within the law of similar resonance.
Hahnemann also created a footnote to 56 in the 5th Edition of the
Organon. By the time Hahnemann had written the Introduction (1833), he
had become aware of efforts to take what Hering and Lux were doing to
create a false system of medicine (Gross in particular) and made an
addition to address this:
A fourth mode of employing medicines in diseases has
been attempted to be created by means of Isopathy, as it is
called - that is to say, a method of curing a given disease by the
same contagious principle that produces it. But even granting
this could be done, which would certainly be a most valuable
discovery, yet, after all, seeing that the miasm (virus) is given
to the patient highly potentised, and thereby, consequently, to
a certain degree in an altered condition, the cure is effected
only by opposing a simillimum to a simillimum.
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128
129
medicine based on true identity, that is, from the use of crude disease
matter, which is highly dangerous, even deadly.
However, Hahnemanns attempts at dealing with this issue were not
well understood, not surprising given the general lack of understanding of
the dual nature of disease. On Hahnemanns death, Griesselich, the editor
of the journal, Hygea (1834-1848), who had considerable influence in
homeopathic circles at the time, followed in Hahnemanns footsteps and
attacked isopathy as a system, even though he was sympathetic to the use
of sarcodes and nosodes (and had earlier developed the use of Psorinum
which Hahnemann and Hering took up).
The result was confusion and the casting of isodes and nosodes into a
shadowland of continued use without any clear understanding of the basis
for this use. On the one hand, they do not strictly conform to the prevailing
idea that remedies should be prescribed solely on the basis of
symptomology (provings). On the other hand, they are clinically effective
when used on the basis of a direct relationship with a known and constant
disease (such as measles, whooping cough, smallpox, chronic miasms,
etc.).
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132
remedies made from drugs to treat chemical and other druginduced diseases (e.g., Sulphur to remove sulphur disease,
Cortisone, Penicillinum, Mercurius, Plumbum, Cuprum, etc.)
133
135
136
Bibliography
J.H. Allen, The Chronic Miasms Psora and Pseudo-psora, p. 13,
1990 reprint, B. Jain Publishers
Dr. S. K. Banerjea, Miasmatic Prescribing, published by the Allen
College of Homeopathy, England, 2001
S.R. Decker and R. Verspoor, The Dynamic Legacy: from Homeopathy
to Heilkunst, available at www.homeopathiceducation.com
Dr. Jean F. Elmiger, Re-discovering Real Medicine, published by
Element, 1998
S. Hahnemann, Chronic Diseases and Their Cure, translation by
S.R. Decker, electronic version
J.T. Kent, Lectures in Homeopathic Philosophy, B. Jain Publishers
Rajan Sankaran, The Substance of Homeopathy, B. Jain Publishers
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