Chapter 13: Posology
potencies
It seems limiting to restrict your prescribing to any small range, either high or low.
It limits the practitioner's own usefulness and deprives the patient of more
valuable means of relief and care
Any potency may be required in any case.
It is unreasonable to expect to cure all cases with any two or three potencies.
Those who are governed more by a love of ease and prejudice will do this- more than those who desire efficiency.
A well selected remedy may completely fail, or even do injury because of wrong dosage.
The homeopathic doctrine of dosage was based on the discovery of the opposite
action of large and small doses of medicine.
- It is another application of the Law of Mutual Action, the third Newtonian law of motions- "Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite"
there is the primary and secondary action of drugs
- deep sleep is the primary action of Opium, followed by insomnia
- this only happens with 'physiological' drugs
Homeopathic medicines are never used for their physiological effect
it is important to differentiate between: physiological, therapeutic and pathogenic:
physiological = drug action which is a toxic action
- the physiological action of a drug is not its therapeutic or curative action. It is the opposite of a curative action, and is never employed in homeopathic practice for therapeutic purposes.
- produces drug symptoms
- pathogenic [ Greek 'pathos' or suffering, and 'genesis' or producing suffering]
Therapeutic = curative, healing, alleviating
- a pathogenetic action is never curative
- the action of a drug may be therapeutic [curative]
pathogenic doses are given during provings
- homeopathic treatment never intends to produce symptoms, but to remove them
- physiological doses are pathogenic
- intention of homeopathy is to at worse produce a slight temporary aggravation of already existing symptoms- never to produce new ones.
Physiological doses are selected to find the maximum dose consistent with safety.
The intent is to produce a definite drug effect.
Allopathic practitioners are not trained to observe all of the more delicate actions of drugs on the living organism.
From this point of view such symptoms, so long as they are not serious, are of no importance and have no use.
Organic resistance
- every living organism reacts to stimuli
- it offers resistance to everything which disturbs its normal functioning
- resistance is manifested by suffering pain, fever, inflammation, etc.
Drugs are administered in a dose designed to first overcome the organic resistance, and second to produce its characteristic symptoms.
Homeopathic drugs produce little to no organic resistance.
- homeopathic drugs acts upon the tracts involved in the disease process
- smaller doses are given as they do not need to overcome organic resistance
- homeopathic medicines are given so small as to not produce pathogenic symptoms
- smaller doses are also used because disease renders affected parts abnormally sensitive as we see in an inflamed eye which is painfully sensitive to a degree of light which is reacts normally in health
- homeopathic drugs are given singly so that its action is complete and unmodified by other drugs
Infinitesimal doses of medicine have power and act as a force
- in order that the force be curative, it must be applied homeopathically
- force, to be effective, must be applied in the proper amount, in the proper direction and at the proper time
Hahnemann's reply to those who railed at the infinitesimal dose as "Nothing," and "Absurd."
"How so? The smallest possible portion of a substance, is it not an integral part of the whole? Were it to be divided and redivided even to the limits of infinity, would there not still remain something,-something substantial, - a part of the whole, let it be ever so minute? What man in his senses would deny it?
His final conclusion was that the proper dose is always the least possible dose which will effect a cure.
There are potencies available today which are higher than what was available in Hahnemann's time.
- These have been tested over time for efficiency.
- The expand the range to work with
The bulk of homeopathy is done with low and medium potencies.
Choosing the potency
Five considerations influence us in the choice of the dose:
1. The susceptibility of the patient.
2. The seat of the disease.
3. The nature and intensity of the disease.
4. The stage and duration of the disease.
5. The previous treatment of the disease.
Susceptibility- this may be most important guide in selection of the dose.
- varies according to age, temperament, constitution, habits, character of diseases and environment
- susceptibility of individual to a remedy can vary over time
The more similar the remedy, the more clearly and positively the symptoms of the patient take on the peculiar and characteristic form of the remedy, the greater the susceptibility to that remedy, and the higher the potency required.
Dr. Jahr - the difference between high and low potencies consists not in their strength or weakness, but in the development of, the peculiarities of the remedy, as we rise in the scale of potencies.
Remedies which may have similarities in lower potencies, such as Arn, Rhus, Bry and Sulph become more and more distinct and peculiar in higher potencies.
Narcotics which in crude form have similar effects such as Bell, Stram or Opium of stupefaction, have characteristic differences in potentiated doses.
"By continual diluting and succussing," says Jahr, "remedies get neither stronger nor weaker, but their individual peculiarities become more and more developed;" in other words, their sphere of action is enlarged, as represented by the concentric circles.
In a given case, where the symptoms are not clearly developed and there is an absence or scarcity of characteristic features; or where two or three remedies seem about equally indicated, susceptibility and reaction may be regarded as low [3rd to 12th potency].
When most symptoms of a case clearly indicate one remedy, whose characteristic symptoms correspond closely to the characteristic symptoms of the case, we give the high potencies - thirtieth, two hundredth, thousandth, or higher, according to the prescriber's degree of confidence and the contents of his medicine case.
Susceptibility is Modified by Age - Generally speaking, susceptibility is greatest in children and young, vigorous persons, and diminishes with age. Therefore the medicines which have a peculiar affinity for those organs should be given in the medium or higher potencies.
Susceptibility is Modified by Constitution and Temperament - The higher potencies are best adapted to sensitive persons of the nervous, sanguine or choleric temperament; to intelligent, intellectual persons, quick to act and react; to zealous and impulsive persons.
Lower potencies and larger and more frequent doses correspond better to torpid and phlegmatic individuals, dull of comprehension and slow to act; to coarse fibered, sluggish individuals of gross habits; to those who possess great muscular power but who require a powerful stimulus to excite them. Such persons can take with seeming impunity large amounts of stimulants like whiskey, and show little effect from it. When ill they often require low potencies, or even sometimes, material doses.
Susceptibility is Modified by Habit and Environment - It is increased by intellectual occupation, by excitement of the imagination and emotions, by sedentary occupations, by long sleep, by an effeminate life. Such persons require high potencies.
Susceptibility is Modified by Pathological Conditions - In certain terminal conditions the power of the organism to react, even to the indicated homœopathic remedy, may become so low that only material doses can arouse it. A common example of this is seen in certain terminal conditions of valvular heart disease, where Digitalis is the indicated remedy, but no effect is produced by any potency. The patient will respond, however, to tangible doses of the pure tincture or, a fresh infusion of Digitalis and sometimes make a good recovery from a condition that seems hopeless. Although
Quantity alone does not constitute a pathogenetic dose. Quality, proportionality and the susceptibility of the patient are also factors.
So-called "pathological symptoms," when they exist alone, are as significant and characteristic in their way and may be as clearly indicative of a remedy, homeopathically, as the earlier, finer grades of symptoms. Whether they are as useful to the homœopathic prescriber or not depends upon the existence of similar symptoms in the Materia Medica.
In terminal conditions, therefore, when the patient does not react to well selected remedies, nor to intercurrent reaction remedies given in potentiated form and small doses, resort to the crude drug and increase the dose to the point of reaction.
EX: of a case of Ditgitalis where crude doses were required, but it worked because they were homeopathically chosen and applied.
Susceptibility is Modified by Habit and Environment - People who are accustomed to long and severe labor out-of-doors, who sleep little and whose food is coarse, are less susceptible.
Persons exposed to the continual influence of drugs, such as tobacco workers and dealers; distillers and brewers and all connected with the liquor and tobacco trade, druggists, perfumers, chemical workers, etc. often possess little susceptibility to medicines and usually require low potencies in the illnesses, except where their illness is directly caused by some particular drug influence, when a high potency of the same or a similar drug may prove to be the best antidote.
Idiots, imbeciles and the deaf and dumb have a low degree of susceptibility, as a rule.
"There is no rule without its exceptions" and this is especially true in this matter of the homœopathic doses. Contrary to what one would expect, persons who have taken many crude drugs of allopathic, homœopathic or "bargain-counter" prescription often require high potencies for their cure. Their susceptibility to crude drugs and low potencies has been exhausted and even massive doses seem to have no effect; as where cathartics or anodynes have been used until there is no reaction to them. Such cases will often respond at once to high potencies of the indicated remedy; in fact they often require the high potency as an antidote. The high potency is effective because it acts on virgin soil, invades new territory, as it were.
The seat, character, and intensity of the disease has some bearing upon the question of the dose. Certain malignant and rapidly fatal diseases, like cholera, may require material doses or low potencies of the indicated drug. Hahnemann's famous prescription of Camphor in drop doses of the strong tincture, given every five or ten minutes, with which so many thousands of lives have been saved, is an illustration.
Generally speaking, diseases characterized by diminished vital action require the lower potencies; while diseases characterized by increased vital action respond better to high potencies; modified by constitution of the patient.
The main point, determine the degree of susceptibility of the particular patient at a given time.
Dosing Questions
The first question which confronts us is whether to give one dose or repeated doses. The second question is, if we give one dose when shall we repeat it? Third, if we give repeated doses, how often shall we repeat the doses and when shall we stop dosing?
Many expert prescribers begin the treatment of practically all cases by giving a single dose of the indicated remedy and awaiting reaction.
Hahnemann's usual teaching, the outcome of his long, and rich experience, was to give a single dose and await its full action.
- The duration of action of a remedy which acts (and no other counts) varies, of course, with the nature and rate of progress of the disease.
In a disease of such violence and rapid tendency toward death as cholera, for example, the action of the indicated remedy might be exhausted in five or ten minutes and another dose be required at the end of that time.
In a slowly progressing chronic disease, like tuberculosis, the action of a dose of a curative remedy might continue for two or three months.
The only rule which can be laid down with safety is to repeat the dose only when improvement ceases.
Young practitioners and many old ones too, for that matter, give too many doses, repeat too frequently, change remedies too often. They give no time for reaction.
- If the remedy and dose are right there will be results.
One of the most difficult things is to learn to wait. Three things are necessary: wisdom, courage and patience. "Strong doses" and frequent repetition will not avail if the remedy is not right.
The Effect of the Remedy
After administering the remedy, it is our duty to observe the patient carefully to correctly note and interpret the changes that occur- revealed by symptoms.
- determine whether the remedy has acted at all or not
- if no action determine whether the failure to act is due to an error in the selection of the remedy, or to the selection of the wrong potency of the remedy
- if we find the remedy rightly chosen, we change the potency to a higher or lower potency, as circumstances may require
- caution should be given to symptoms as told by the patient or family - they may be exaggerated for better or for worse
A remedy shows its action:
1. by producing new symptoms
2. by the disappearance of symptoms
3. by the increase or aggravation of symptoms
4. by the amelioration of symptoms
5. by a change in the order and direction of symptoms
1. An improperly chosen remedy may change the condition of an oversensitive patient by producing new symptoms not related to the disease and detrimental to his welfare. These are pathogenetic symptoms. Their appearance indicates that the remedy is not curing the patient, but merely making a proving. Discontinuance and an antidote is demanded.
2. A correctly, chosen remedy given in too low or sometimes too high a potency, or in too many doses, may cause an aggravation of the existing symptoms so severe as to endanger the life of the patient.
3. A slight aggravation or intensification of the symptoms, appearing quickly after giving the remedy and soon passing away is a good sign. It calls for a suspension of medication until the after-following improvement ceases or the symptoms change again. It is the first and best evidence of the curative action of a well chosen remedy.
4. A prolonged aggravation without amelioration and with progressive decline of the patient is sometimes seen in chronic, deep seated disease as a result of the over-action of a deeply acting anti-psoric or anti-syphilitic medicine, given in too high a potency in the beginning of treatment.
Very high potencies of the closely similar remedy are merciless searchers-out of hidden things. They will sometimes bring to light a veritable avalanche of symptoms which overwhelms the weakened patient. The disease has gone too far for such radical probing. If the disease has not gone so far, a long and severe aggravation may fortunately be followed by slow improvement.
In these homeopathic reactions and aggravations we distinguish between changes occurring in vital organs and changes in superficial tissues and non-vital organs.
The direction of cure is from within outward, from above downward and in the reverse order of the appearance of the symptoms.
5. The change following the administration of a remedy may be a quick, short amelioration followed by a relapse to the original or a worse condition. This may be because the remedy was only partly similar, or insufficient as to dosage; but where this occurrence is observed several times in succession and lasting improvement does not follow carefully selected remedies, it means that the case is incurable.
6. In functional diseases, or in the beginning of acute organic diseases, accompanied perhaps by severe pain, the administration of the appropriate dose of the indicated remedy may be followed by rapid disappearance of symptoms without any aggravation. This is a cure of the most satisfactory kind, pleasing alike to physician and patient. Remedy and potency were both exactly righ
The Law of Dosage: The curative dose, like the remedy, must be similar in quantity and quality to the dose of the morbific agent which caused the disease.
How do we determine the measure of the morbific agent?
- do not consider the quality of the external morbid cause
- only consider the quantity
The real and efficient quantity of the morbid cause necessary to produce the disease cannot be greater than the quantity of the medicine necessary to cure it!
- posology is the science or doctrine of dosage
- three essential elements = the principle, the remedy and the dose
- all are equally important
- this subject has been a traditional source of discord- and each practitioner
- needs to work out a response
- at one point H tried to align opposing camps by using solely 30C potency
- remedies
- Some decided to utilize only crude tinctures, triturations, or very low
- dilutions ranging from 1X to 6X
- Others ranged from 3rd to 30th potencies
- the smallest group used very high potencies ranging from 200th to 1 millionth
potencies
It seems limiting to restrict your prescribing to any small range, either high or low.
It limits the practitioner's own usefulness and deprives the patient of more
valuable means of relief and care
Any potency may be required in any case.
It is unreasonable to expect to cure all cases with any two or three potencies.
Those who are governed more by a love of ease and prejudice will do this- more than those who desire efficiency.
A well selected remedy may completely fail, or even do injury because of wrong dosage.
The homeopathic doctrine of dosage was based on the discovery of the opposite
action of large and small doses of medicine.
- It is another application of the Law of Mutual Action, the third Newtonian law of motions- "Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite"
there is the primary and secondary action of drugs
- deep sleep is the primary action of Opium, followed by insomnia
- this only happens with 'physiological' drugs
Homeopathic medicines are never used for their physiological effect
it is important to differentiate between: physiological, therapeutic and pathogenic:
physiological = drug action which is a toxic action
- the physiological action of a drug is not its therapeutic or curative action. It is the opposite of a curative action, and is never employed in homeopathic practice for therapeutic purposes.
- produces drug symptoms
- pathogenic [ Greek 'pathos' or suffering, and 'genesis' or producing suffering]
Therapeutic = curative, healing, alleviating
- a pathogenetic action is never curative
- the action of a drug may be therapeutic [curative]
pathogenic doses are given during provings
- homeopathic treatment never intends to produce symptoms, but to remove them
- physiological doses are pathogenic
- intention of homeopathy is to at worse produce a slight temporary aggravation of already existing symptoms- never to produce new ones.
Physiological doses are selected to find the maximum dose consistent with safety.
The intent is to produce a definite drug effect.
Allopathic practitioners are not trained to observe all of the more delicate actions of drugs on the living organism.
From this point of view such symptoms, so long as they are not serious, are of no importance and have no use.
Organic resistance
- every living organism reacts to stimuli
- it offers resistance to everything which disturbs its normal functioning
- resistance is manifested by suffering pain, fever, inflammation, etc.
Drugs are administered in a dose designed to first overcome the organic resistance, and second to produce its characteristic symptoms.
Homeopathic drugs produce little to no organic resistance.
- homeopathic drugs acts upon the tracts involved in the disease process
- smaller doses are given as they do not need to overcome organic resistance
- homeopathic medicines are given so small as to not produce pathogenic symptoms
- smaller doses are also used because disease renders affected parts abnormally sensitive as we see in an inflamed eye which is painfully sensitive to a degree of light which is reacts normally in health
- homeopathic drugs are given singly so that its action is complete and unmodified by other drugs
Infinitesimal doses of medicine have power and act as a force
- in order that the force be curative, it must be applied homeopathically
- force, to be effective, must be applied in the proper amount, in the proper direction and at the proper time
Hahnemann's reply to those who railed at the infinitesimal dose as "Nothing," and "Absurd."
"How so? The smallest possible portion of a substance, is it not an integral part of the whole? Were it to be divided and redivided even to the limits of infinity, would there not still remain something,-something substantial, - a part of the whole, let it be ever so minute? What man in his senses would deny it?
His final conclusion was that the proper dose is always the least possible dose which will effect a cure.
There are potencies available today which are higher than what was available in Hahnemann's time.
- These have been tested over time for efficiency.
- The expand the range to work with
The bulk of homeopathy is done with low and medium potencies.
Choosing the potency
Five considerations influence us in the choice of the dose:
1. The susceptibility of the patient.
2. The seat of the disease.
3. The nature and intensity of the disease.
4. The stage and duration of the disease.
5. The previous treatment of the disease.
Susceptibility- this may be most important guide in selection of the dose.
- varies according to age, temperament, constitution, habits, character of diseases and environment
- susceptibility of individual to a remedy can vary over time
The more similar the remedy, the more clearly and positively the symptoms of the patient take on the peculiar and characteristic form of the remedy, the greater the susceptibility to that remedy, and the higher the potency required.
Dr. Jahr - the difference between high and low potencies consists not in their strength or weakness, but in the development of, the peculiarities of the remedy, as we rise in the scale of potencies.
Remedies which may have similarities in lower potencies, such as Arn, Rhus, Bry and Sulph become more and more distinct and peculiar in higher potencies.
Narcotics which in crude form have similar effects such as Bell, Stram or Opium of stupefaction, have characteristic differences in potentiated doses.
"By continual diluting and succussing," says Jahr, "remedies get neither stronger nor weaker, but their individual peculiarities become more and more developed;" in other words, their sphere of action is enlarged, as represented by the concentric circles.
In a given case, where the symptoms are not clearly developed and there is an absence or scarcity of characteristic features; or where two or three remedies seem about equally indicated, susceptibility and reaction may be regarded as low [3rd to 12th potency].
When most symptoms of a case clearly indicate one remedy, whose characteristic symptoms correspond closely to the characteristic symptoms of the case, we give the high potencies - thirtieth, two hundredth, thousandth, or higher, according to the prescriber's degree of confidence and the contents of his medicine case.
Susceptibility is Modified by Age - Generally speaking, susceptibility is greatest in children and young, vigorous persons, and diminishes with age. Therefore the medicines which have a peculiar affinity for those organs should be given in the medium or higher potencies.
Susceptibility is Modified by Constitution and Temperament - The higher potencies are best adapted to sensitive persons of the nervous, sanguine or choleric temperament; to intelligent, intellectual persons, quick to act and react; to zealous and impulsive persons.
Lower potencies and larger and more frequent doses correspond better to torpid and phlegmatic individuals, dull of comprehension and slow to act; to coarse fibered, sluggish individuals of gross habits; to those who possess great muscular power but who require a powerful stimulus to excite them. Such persons can take with seeming impunity large amounts of stimulants like whiskey, and show little effect from it. When ill they often require low potencies, or even sometimes, material doses.
Susceptibility is Modified by Habit and Environment - It is increased by intellectual occupation, by excitement of the imagination and emotions, by sedentary occupations, by long sleep, by an effeminate life. Such persons require high potencies.
Susceptibility is Modified by Pathological Conditions - In certain terminal conditions the power of the organism to react, even to the indicated homœopathic remedy, may become so low that only material doses can arouse it. A common example of this is seen in certain terminal conditions of valvular heart disease, where Digitalis is the indicated remedy, but no effect is produced by any potency. The patient will respond, however, to tangible doses of the pure tincture or, a fresh infusion of Digitalis and sometimes make a good recovery from a condition that seems hopeless. Although
Quantity alone does not constitute a pathogenetic dose. Quality, proportionality and the susceptibility of the patient are also factors.
So-called "pathological symptoms," when they exist alone, are as significant and characteristic in their way and may be as clearly indicative of a remedy, homeopathically, as the earlier, finer grades of symptoms. Whether they are as useful to the homœopathic prescriber or not depends upon the existence of similar symptoms in the Materia Medica.
In terminal conditions, therefore, when the patient does not react to well selected remedies, nor to intercurrent reaction remedies given in potentiated form and small doses, resort to the crude drug and increase the dose to the point of reaction.
EX: of a case of Ditgitalis where crude doses were required, but it worked because they were homeopathically chosen and applied.
Susceptibility is Modified by Habit and Environment - People who are accustomed to long and severe labor out-of-doors, who sleep little and whose food is coarse, are less susceptible.
Persons exposed to the continual influence of drugs, such as tobacco workers and dealers; distillers and brewers and all connected with the liquor and tobacco trade, druggists, perfumers, chemical workers, etc. often possess little susceptibility to medicines and usually require low potencies in the illnesses, except where their illness is directly caused by some particular drug influence, when a high potency of the same or a similar drug may prove to be the best antidote.
Idiots, imbeciles and the deaf and dumb have a low degree of susceptibility, as a rule.
"There is no rule without its exceptions" and this is especially true in this matter of the homœopathic doses. Contrary to what one would expect, persons who have taken many crude drugs of allopathic, homœopathic or "bargain-counter" prescription often require high potencies for their cure. Their susceptibility to crude drugs and low potencies has been exhausted and even massive doses seem to have no effect; as where cathartics or anodynes have been used until there is no reaction to them. Such cases will often respond at once to high potencies of the indicated remedy; in fact they often require the high potency as an antidote. The high potency is effective because it acts on virgin soil, invades new territory, as it were.
The seat, character, and intensity of the disease has some bearing upon the question of the dose. Certain malignant and rapidly fatal diseases, like cholera, may require material doses or low potencies of the indicated drug. Hahnemann's famous prescription of Camphor in drop doses of the strong tincture, given every five or ten minutes, with which so many thousands of lives have been saved, is an illustration.
Generally speaking, diseases characterized by diminished vital action require the lower potencies; while diseases characterized by increased vital action respond better to high potencies; modified by constitution of the patient.
The main point, determine the degree of susceptibility of the particular patient at a given time.
Dosing Questions
The first question which confronts us is whether to give one dose or repeated doses. The second question is, if we give one dose when shall we repeat it? Third, if we give repeated doses, how often shall we repeat the doses and when shall we stop dosing?
Many expert prescribers begin the treatment of practically all cases by giving a single dose of the indicated remedy and awaiting reaction.
Hahnemann's usual teaching, the outcome of his long, and rich experience, was to give a single dose and await its full action.
- The duration of action of a remedy which acts (and no other counts) varies, of course, with the nature and rate of progress of the disease.
In a disease of such violence and rapid tendency toward death as cholera, for example, the action of the indicated remedy might be exhausted in five or ten minutes and another dose be required at the end of that time.
In a slowly progressing chronic disease, like tuberculosis, the action of a dose of a curative remedy might continue for two or three months.
The only rule which can be laid down with safety is to repeat the dose only when improvement ceases.
Young practitioners and many old ones too, for that matter, give too many doses, repeat too frequently, change remedies too often. They give no time for reaction.
- If the remedy and dose are right there will be results.
One of the most difficult things is to learn to wait. Three things are necessary: wisdom, courage and patience. "Strong doses" and frequent repetition will not avail if the remedy is not right.
The Effect of the Remedy
After administering the remedy, it is our duty to observe the patient carefully to correctly note and interpret the changes that occur- revealed by symptoms.
- determine whether the remedy has acted at all or not
- if no action determine whether the failure to act is due to an error in the selection of the remedy, or to the selection of the wrong potency of the remedy
- if we find the remedy rightly chosen, we change the potency to a higher or lower potency, as circumstances may require
- caution should be given to symptoms as told by the patient or family - they may be exaggerated for better or for worse
A remedy shows its action:
1. by producing new symptoms
2. by the disappearance of symptoms
3. by the increase or aggravation of symptoms
4. by the amelioration of symptoms
5. by a change in the order and direction of symptoms
1. An improperly chosen remedy may change the condition of an oversensitive patient by producing new symptoms not related to the disease and detrimental to his welfare. These are pathogenetic symptoms. Their appearance indicates that the remedy is not curing the patient, but merely making a proving. Discontinuance and an antidote is demanded.
2. A correctly, chosen remedy given in too low or sometimes too high a potency, or in too many doses, may cause an aggravation of the existing symptoms so severe as to endanger the life of the patient.
3. A slight aggravation or intensification of the symptoms, appearing quickly after giving the remedy and soon passing away is a good sign. It calls for a suspension of medication until the after-following improvement ceases or the symptoms change again. It is the first and best evidence of the curative action of a well chosen remedy.
4. A prolonged aggravation without amelioration and with progressive decline of the patient is sometimes seen in chronic, deep seated disease as a result of the over-action of a deeply acting anti-psoric or anti-syphilitic medicine, given in too high a potency in the beginning of treatment.
Very high potencies of the closely similar remedy are merciless searchers-out of hidden things. They will sometimes bring to light a veritable avalanche of symptoms which overwhelms the weakened patient. The disease has gone too far for such radical probing. If the disease has not gone so far, a long and severe aggravation may fortunately be followed by slow improvement.
In these homeopathic reactions and aggravations we distinguish between changes occurring in vital organs and changes in superficial tissues and non-vital organs.
The direction of cure is from within outward, from above downward and in the reverse order of the appearance of the symptoms.
5. The change following the administration of a remedy may be a quick, short amelioration followed by a relapse to the original or a worse condition. This may be because the remedy was only partly similar, or insufficient as to dosage; but where this occurrence is observed several times in succession and lasting improvement does not follow carefully selected remedies, it means that the case is incurable.
6. In functional diseases, or in the beginning of acute organic diseases, accompanied perhaps by severe pain, the administration of the appropriate dose of the indicated remedy may be followed by rapid disappearance of symptoms without any aggravation. This is a cure of the most satisfactory kind, pleasing alike to physician and patient. Remedy and potency were both exactly righ
The Law of Dosage: The curative dose, like the remedy, must be similar in quantity and quality to the dose of the morbific agent which caused the disease.
How do we determine the measure of the morbific agent?
- do not consider the quality of the external morbid cause
- only consider the quantity
The real and efficient quantity of the morbid cause necessary to produce the disease cannot be greater than the quantity of the medicine necessary to cure it!
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