Clínica

O Observador Médico
REC2021 – S02c

REC2021
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O Observador Médico – Samuel Hahnemann

Sumário
O Observador Médico – Samuel Hahnemann .................................................................................................. 1
The Medical Observer by Samuel Hahnemenn ............................................................................................ 1
Original Text ................................................................................................................................................. 4

The Medical Observer by Samuel Hahnemenn

(Editado para discussão em grupo).
1. In order to be able to observe well (clear perception),
a. the medicinal practitioner requires to possess, what is not to be met with among
ordinary physicians even in a moderate degree,
b. the capacity and habit of noticing carefully and correctly the phenomena
i. that take place in natural diseases,
ii. as well as those that occur in the morbid states artificially excited by medicines
when they are tested upon the healthy body (patogenesy),
iii. and the ability to describe them in the most appropriate and natural
expressions.
2. In order accurately to perceive what is to be observed in patients,
a. we should direct all our thoughts upon the matter we have in hand, come out of
ourselves, as it were,
b. and fasten ourselves, so to speak, with all our powers of concentration upon it,
c. in order that nothing that is actually present, that has to do with the subject, and that
can be ascertained by all the senses, may escape us.
3. Poetic fancy, fantastic wit and speculation, must for the time be suspended,
a. and all over-strained reasoning, forced interpretation and tendency to explain away
things must be suppressed.
b. The duty of the observer is only to take notice of the phenomena and their course;
c. his attention should be on the watch, not only that nothing actually present escape
his observation, but that also what he observes be understood exactly as it is.
4. This capability of observing accurately is never quite an innate faculty;
a. it must be chiefly acquired by practice,
b. by refining and regulating the perceptions of the senses, that is to say, by exercising
a severe criticism in regard to the rapid impressions we obtain of external objects,
c. and at the same time the necessary coolness, calmness, and firmness of judgment
must be preserved,
d. together with a constant distrust of our own powers of apprehension.
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5. The vast importance of our subject should make us bestow the energies of our body and
mind upon the observation;
a. and great patience, supported by the power of the will, must sustain us in this
direction until the completion of the observation.
6. To educate us for the acquirement of this faculty,
a. an acquaintance with the best writings of the Greeks and Romans is useful, in order
to enable us to attain directness in thinking and in feeling, as also appropriateness
and simplicity in expressing our sensations;
b. the art of drawing from nature is also useful, as it sharpens and practices our eye, and
thereby also our other senses, teaching us to form a true conception of objects, and to
represent what we observe, truly and purely, without any addition from the fancy.
c. A knowledge of mathematics also gives us the requisite severity in forming a
judgment.
7. Thus equipped, the medical observer cannot fail to accomplish his object, especially if he has
at the same time constantly before his eyes the exalted dignity of his calling — as the
representative of the all-bountiful Father and Preserver, to minister to His beloved human
creatures by renovating their systems when ravaged by disease.
8. He knows that observations of medical subjects must be made in a sincere and holy spirit,
as if under the eye of the all-seeing God, the Judge of our secret thoughts, and must be
recorded so as to satisfy an upright conscience, in order that they may be communicated to
the world, in the consciousness that no earthly good is more worthy of our zealous exertions
than the preservation of the life and health of our fellow-creatures.
9. The best opportunity for exercising and perfecting our observing faculty is afforded by
instituting experiments with medicines upon ourselves.
a. Whilst avoiding all foreign medicinal influences and disturbing mental impressions
in this important operation, the experimenter, after he has taken the medicine, has all
his attention strained towards all the alterations of health that take place on and
within him, in order to observe and correctly to record them, with ever-wakeful
feelings, and his senses ever on the watch.
b. By persevering in this careful investigation of all the changes that occur within and
upon himself, the experimenter attains the capability of observing all the sensations,
be they ever so complex, that he experiences from the medicine he is testing, and all,
even the finest shades of alteration of his health, and of recording in suitable and
adequate expressions his distinct conception of them.
c. Thus only is it possible for the beginner to make pure, correct, and undisturbed
observations, for he knows that he will not deceive himself, there is no one to tell him
aught that is untrue, and he himself feels, sees, and notices what takes place in and
upon him.
d. He will thus acquire practice to enable him to make equally accurate observations on
others also.
10. By means of these pure and accurate investigations we shall be made aware that all the
symptomatology hitherto existing in the ordinary system of medicine was only a very
superficial affair, and that nature is wont to disorder man in his health and in all his
sensations and functions by disease or medicine in such infinitely various and dissimilar
manners, that a single word or a general expression is totally inadequate to describe the
morbid sensations and symptoms which are often of such a complex character, if we wish to
portray really, truly, and perfectly the alterations in the health we meet with.
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11. No portrait painter was ever so careless as to pay no attention to the marked peculiarities in
the features of the person he wished to make a likeness of, or to consider it sufficient to make
any sort of a pair of round holes below the forehead by way of eyes, between them to draw
a long-shaped thing directed downwards, always of the same shape, by way of a nose, and
beneath this to put a slit going across the face, that should stand for the mouth of this or of
any other person; no painter, I say, ever went about delineating human faces in such a rude
and slovenly manner; no naturalist ever went to work in this fashion in describing any
natural production; such was never the way in which any zoologist, botanist, or mineralogist
acted.
12. It was only the semiology of ordinary medicine that went to work in such a manner, when
describing morbid phenomena.
a. The sensations that differ so vastly among each other, and the innumerable varieties
of the sufferings of the many different kinds of patients, were so far from being
described by word or writing according to their divergences and varieties, according
to their peculiarities;
b. the complexity of the pains composed of various kinds of sensations, their degrees
and shades, was so far from being accurately or completely described, that we find
all these infinite varieties of sufferings huddled together under a few bare,
unmeaning, general terms, such as perspiration, heat, fever, headache, sore throat,
croup, asthma, cough, chest complaints, stitch in the side, bellyache, want of appetite,
indigestion, dyspepsia, backache, coxalgia, haemorrhoidal sufferings, urinary
disorders, pains in the limbs (called according to fancy gouty or rheumatic), skin
diseases, spasms, convulsions, and c.
13. With such superficial expressions, the innumerable varieties of sufferings of patients were
disposed of in the so-called observations, so that — with the exception of some one or other
severe, striking symptom in this or that case of disease — almost every disease pretended to
be described is as like another as the spots on a die, or as the various pictures of the dauber
resemble one another in flatness and want of character.
a. The most important of all human vocations, I mean the observation of the sick, and
of the infinite varieties of their disordered state of health, can only be pursued in such
a superficial and careless manner by those, who despise mankind, for in this way
there is no question either of distinguishing the peculiarities of the morbid states, or
of selecting the only appropriate remedy for the special circumstances of the case.
14. The conscientious physician who earnestly endeavours to apprehend in its peculiarity the
disease to be cured, in order to be able to oppose to it the appropriate remedy, will go much
more carefully to work in his endeavour to distinguish what there is to be observed;
a. language will scarcely suffice to enable him to express by appropriate words the
innumerable varieties of the symptoms in the morbid state; no sensation, be it ever
so peculiar, will escape him, which was occasioned in his feelings by the medicine he
tested on himself; he will endeavour to convey an idea of it in language by the most
appropriate expression, in order to be able in his practice to match the accurate
delineation of the morbid picture with the similarly acting medicine, whereby alone,
as he knows, can a cure be effected.
15. So true it is that the careful alone can become a true healer of diseases.
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Original Text
In order to be able to observe well, the medicinal practitioner requires to possess, what is not to be
met with among ordinary physicians even in a moderate degree, the capacity and habit of noticing
carefully and correctly the phenomena that take place in natural diseases, as well as those that occur
in the morbid states artificially excited by medicines when they are tested upon the healthy body,
and the ability to describe them in the most appropriate and natural expressions.
In order accurately to perceive what is to be observed in patients, we should direct all our thoughts
upon the matter we have in hand, come out of ourselves, as it were, and fasten ourselves, so to speak,
with all our powers of concentration upon it, in order that nothing that is actually present, that has
to do with the subject, and that can be ascertained by all the senses, may escape us.
Poetic fancy, fantastic wit and speculation, must for the time be suspended, and all over-strained
reasoning, forced interpretation and tendency to explain away things must be suppressed. The duty
of the observer is only to take notice of the phenomena and their course; his attention should be on
the watch, not only that nothing actually present escape his observation, but that also what he
observes be understood exactly as it is.
This capability of observing accurately is never quite an innate faculty; it must be chiefly acquired
by practice, by refining and regulating the perceptions of the senses, that is to say, by exercising a
severe criticism in regard to the rapid impressions we obtain of external objects, and at the same
time the necessary coolness, calmness, and firmness of judgment must be preserved, together with
a constant distrust of our own powers of apprehension.
The vast importance of our subject should make us bestow the energies of our body and mind upon
the observation; and great patience, supported by the power of the will, must sustain us in this
direction until the completion of the observation.
To educate us for the acquirement of this faculty, an acquaintance with the best writings of the
Greeks and Romans is useful, in order to enable us to attain directness in thinking and in feeling, as
also appropriateness and simplicity in expressing our sensations; the art of drawing from nature is
also useful, as it sharpens and practices our eye, and thereby also our other senses, teaching us to
form a true conception of objects, and to represent what we observe, truly and purely, without any
addition from the fancy. A knowledge of mathematics also gives us the requisite severity in forming
a judgment.
Thus equipped, the medical observer cannot fail to accomplish his object, especially if he has at the
same time constantly before his eyes the exalted dignity of his calling — as the representative of the
all-bountiful Father and Preserver, to minister to His beloved human creatures by renovating their
systems when ravaged by disease.
He knows that observations of medical subjects must be made in a sincere and holy spirit, as if under
the eye of the all-seeing God, the Judge of our secret thoughts, and must be recorded so as to satisfy
an upright conscience, in order that they may be communicated to the world, in the consciousness
that no earthly good is more worthy of our zealous exertions than the preservation of the life and
health of our fellow-creatures.
The best opportunity for exercising and perfecting our observing faculty is afforded by instituting
experiments with medicines upon ourselves. Whilst avoiding all foreign medicinal influences and
disturbing mental impressions in this important operation, the experimenter, after he has taken the
medicine, has all his attention strained towards all the alterations of health that take place on and
within him, in order to observe and correctly to record them, with ever-wakeful feelings, and his
senses ever on the watch.
By persevering in this careful investigation of all the changes that occur within and upon himself,
the experimenter attains the capability of observing all the sensations, be they ever so complex, that
he experiences from the medicine he is testing, and all, even the finest shades of alteration of his
health, and of recording in suitable and adequate expressions his distinct conception of them.
5
Thus only is it possible for the beginner to make pure, correct, and undisturbed observations, for he
knows that he will not deceive himself, there is no one to tell him aught that is untrue, and he himself
feels, sees, and notices what takes place in and upon him. He will thus acquire practice to enable
him to make equally accurate observations on others also.
By means of these pure and accurate investigations we shall be made aware that all the
symptomatology hitherto existing in the ordinary system of medicine was only a very superficial
affair, and that nature is wont to disorder man in his health and in all his sensations and functions
by disease or medicine in such infinitely various and dissimilar manners, that a single word or a
general expression is totally inadequate to describe the morbid sensations and symptoms which are
often of such a complex character, if we wish to portray really, truly, and perfectly the alterations in
the health we meet with.
No portrait painter was ever so careless as to pay no attention to the marked peculiarities in the
features of the person he wished to make a likeness of, or to consider it sufficient to make any sort
of a pair of round holes below the forehead by way of eyes, between them to draw a long-shaped
thing directed downwards, always of the same shape, by way of a nose, and beneath this to put a
slit going across the face, that should stand for the mouth of this or of any other person; no painter,
I say, ever went about delineating human faces in such a rude and slovenly manner; no naturalist
ever went to work in this fashion in describing any natural production; such was never the way in
which any zoologist, botanist, or mineralogist acted.
It was only the semiology of ordinary medicine that went to work in such a manner, when describing
morbid phenomena. The sensations that differ so vastly among each other, and the innumerable
varieties of the sufferings of the many different kinds of patients, were so far from being described
by word or writing according to their divergences and varieties, according to their peculiarities; the
complexity of the pains composed of various kinds of sensations, their degrees and shades, was so
far from being accurately or completely described, that we find all these infinite varieties of
sufferings huddled together under a few bare, unmeaning, general terms, such as perspiration, heat,
fever, headache, sore throat, croup, asthma, cough, chest complaints, stitch in the side, bellyache,
want of appetite, indigestion, dyspepsia, backache, coxalgia, haemorrhoidal sufferings, urinary
disorders, pains in the limbs (called according to fancy gouty or rheumatic), skin diseases, spasms,
convulsions, and c.
With such superficial expressions, the innumerable varieties of sufferings of patients were disposed
of in the so-called observations, so that — with the exception of some one or other severe, striking
symptom in this or that case of disease — almost every disease pretended to be described is as like
another as the spots on a die, or as the various pictures of the dauber resemble one another in flatness
and want of character.
The most important of all human vocations, I mean the observation of the sick, and of the infinite
varieties of their disordered state of health, can only be pursued in such a superficial and careless
manner by those, who despise mankind, for in this way there is no question either of distinguishing
the peculiarities of the morbid states, or of selecting the only appropriate remedy for the special
circumstances of the case.
The conscientious physician who earnestly endeavours to apprehend in its peculiarity the disease
to be cured, in order to be able to oppose to it the appropriate remedy, will go much more carefully
to work in his endeavour to distinguish what there is to be observed; language will scarcely suffice
to enable him to express by appropriate words the innumerable varieties of the symptoms in the
morbid state; no sensation, be it ever so peculiar, will escape him, which was occasioned in his
feelings by the medicine he tested on himself; he will endeavour to convey an idea of it in language
by the most appropriate expression, in order to be able in his practice to match the accurate
delineation of the morbid picture with the similarly acting medicine, whereby alone, as he knows,
can a cure be effected.
So true it is that the careful alone can become a true healer of diseases.