MATERIA MEDICA

How the drugs cure the patient?

Homeopathic Materia Medica is the outcome of the desire to cure the patient rapidly, gently and permanently. The first relational question for the kind of therapy was “How the drugs cure the patient”? The answer that come to Hahnemann’s mind was ‘Experience that yourself’. The Cinchona experiment gave the answer. The law of ‘Similia Similibus Curentur’ was discovered and verified on hundreds of patients by Hahnemann and his colleagues. Drugs were proved from all available and imaginable sources e.g., vibrations, radiations, X-Rays, magnetic poles, radium, minerals, compounds, acids, alkalies, vegetables, condiments, Atmospheric gases, animal products, diseased tissues, blood serum and even the germs that produce diseases. The result of these proving was an infinite collection of medicinal forces to meet the challenge of the infinite number of natural and artificial diseases. Our Materia Medicas contain the proving of all our experiments and personal experience on all these drugs. 

Drugs Proving

The first Mareria Medica was prepared by Dr. Hahnemann himself. Most of the drugs were proved by Hahnemann and his colleagues, both on men and women. The provings contained symptoms in the from of altered sensations and functions felt by the provers after taking a drug. The symptoms were collected as they appeared according to the time factor and according to the schema of Hahnemann. According to the schema the symptoms were divided according to the parts of the body and the organs involved in those parts. The symptoms according to the schema were recorded in the following manner:

Mind

Inner Head

Outer head

Eyes

Ears

Nose

Face

Mouth and Throat

Stomach

Abdomen

Rectum and Anus

Urinary Organs

Male Sexual Organs

Female Sexual Organs

Respiratory Organs

Chest

Neck And Back

Upper Extremities

Lower Extremities

Nervous System

Skin

Sleep

Fever

Besides these symptoms Hahnemann has given in his Materi Medica Pura something about the drug and its method of preparation and a few remarks which he observed during the treatment of patients with the drug e.g., temper, humour and the make up of the patient.

How to select the Similimum?

Each drug proving contained thousands of symptoms collected from a number of provers both males and females. Many symptoms of each drug were found common to a number of drugs, but a small number of symptoms were found to be peculiar to a particular drug alone. Many symptoms were unqualified, but some symptoms were qualified and characteristic. Some drugs showed definite affinity for the mind or some organs of the body, others showed definite pathogensis. All these findings produced a problem for the selection of a drug for the disease of a patient. Hence the second question that Hahnmann had to answer was “How to select the Similimum”? Hahnmann handed over the task to his legal advisor Von Boenninghausen who was helping him and contributing his experiences to the homeopathic literature, especially on the subject of “Evaluation of symptoms for the selection of the Similimum”. (To be continue..)