§ 2

The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles.

The highest ideal of cure

Ideal means outstanding. In order for the cure to be outstanding the physician must be qualified, then he must follow the principles and laws governing the treatment of homoeopathy. Most of the homoeopathic physician today are qualified but does not follow the principles, laws that must be followed during the treatment. On contrary, unqualified physician following principles, laws are also not uncommon. Anyway in order for a "cure" to occur one must practice laws and principle that are necessary for an ideal cure.

what are the qualities of ideal cure?

FIVE QUALITIES OF IDEAL CURE

(1) It should be rapid: It must not be slow enough. If  all the principles and laws of homoeopathy is practiced properly you will get rapid cure. There is a common notion that Homoeopathy is rather slow. Actually it is not. People  goes to allopathy for faster so called "cure". Cure does not take place in allopathy. Here after having allopathic medicine you will not get cured but only get suppressed. Suppression is transient removal of symptoms which can either go more deeper producing disease in other vital organs and tissues which was not originally affected or return back of the symptoms after discontinuation of  medicine. In that sense allopathy rapidly removes the symptoms by suppression and  not "cure". So rapid cure takes place in Homoeopathy and rapid suppression in allopathy. Suppression or palliation of disease, is the removal of the external symptoms of disease by external, mechanical, chemical or topical treatment; or by means of powerful drugs, given internally in massive dose, which have a direct physiological or toxic effect but no therapeutic or curative action. 

(2)Gentle: Cure must be gentle. Most of the common men prefer Homoeopathy  over allopathy for gentle ness it produced. Let me give you an example from allopathic world. For treatment for diarrhea they give medicine to constipate and get constipation after treatment. Constipation is side effect of the allopathic medicine. Getting treatment for one disease and getting another disease in spite of treatment cannot be called gentle. Smooth removal of symptoms  or disease without side-effect is a hallmark of Homoeopathy. Hence it gentle.

(3)Permanent restoration of the health. After treatment of one disease one gets another disease in spite of treatment  cannot be called permanent. One is healthy before the disease condition has affected him. This previous condition of health must be restored after the treatment then we can say that permanent restoration of health  has taken place. Let me give some allopathic examples. Amputation of limbs for gangrene. Here the previous condition of health, where in he was able to play, run, jump,  is not restored and hence is not an ideal cure nor permanent restoration of the health, nor removal or annihilation of the disease in its whole extend because amputation of limbs did not remove the disease but only the result of the disease. Disease may either go inward and affects other organs or may effect other limb also. But homoeopathy treats gently rapidly and permanently and restore the previous condition of health and also removes the disease in whole extend.

(4) Most reliable. Homoeopathy is rapid, gentle and also removes most of the ailments permanently to previous state of health. This restoration of health is based on principles and laws proved on healthy human volunteers and not merely on animals. This is enough for people to trust, homoeopathy. Homoeopathy has authentic laws, principles  and hence most reliable. 

(5) Easily comprehensible principles. Homoeopathy has laws, principles, which must be adhered to by all the physicians for an ideal cure. Because ideal cure takes place only based on principles


 

                                                   § 3

If the physician clearly perceives what is to be cured in diseases, that is to say, in every individual case of disease (knowledge of disease, indication), if he clearly perceives what is curative in medicines, that is to say, in each individual medicine (knowledge of medicinal powers), and if he knows how to adapt, according to clearly defined principles, what is curative in medicines to what he has discovered to be undoubtedly morbid in the patient, so that the recovery must ensue - to adapt it, as well in respect to the suitability of the medicine most appropriate according to its mode of action to the case before him (choice of the remedy, the medicine indicated), as also in respect to the exact mode of preparation and quantity of it required (proper dose), and the proper period for repeating the dose; - if, finally, he knows the obstacles to recovery in each case and is aware how to remove them, so that the restoration may be permanent, then he understands how to treat judiciously and rationally, and he is a true practitioner of the healing art .

COMMENTARY:  A true  physician  should have following knowledge, for him to treat judicially and rationally. These five fold knowledge required for a physician to cure ideally are

bullet knowledge of disease
bullet knowledge of medicinal powers
bullet choice of the remedy
bullet proper dose
bullet obstacles to recovery 

knowledge of disease: is  not knowledge in pathology. Knowledge of disease means knowledge of sick person as whole or individualisation. When a persons come to a clinic he or she may have various symptoms. Let us assume that patient 'A' come to clinic. He has following symptoms

Now what do allopathy do. They treat each one as separate disease and give pain killer to suppress his joint pain and another medicine to suppress the asthma. They just consider the fact that patient is  asthmatic. The allopathic doctor does not want to know the factors that increases or decreases the disease, nor does he not want to know how a patient feels during illness. Nor does he want to consider the trivial accompanying symptoms.  

Lets see what homoeopathy do and what individualization in homoeopathy mean?

For the above mentioned case the patient has asthma. Every case of asthma has breathing difficulty and wheezing. For that patient to be treated Homoeopathically that common symptom alone is not enough. Homeopathic physician should know which part of the day the patient is aggravated -morning ,night, evening or season autumn, winter, spring, summer or rainy season. The homoeopathic physician should consider part affected whether right or left or both. Homoeopathic physician should  consider exact sensation of the patient with regarding to his trouble . Sensation here means how the patient feel regarding each of his symptoms. Here each of the  complex symptoms  of a case is divided into the component dimensions of Locality, Sensation, Modality/Causation and Concomitance followed by Boenninghausen. Concomitance mean those symptoms accompanying main symptoms.

Let us assume that on detailed case-taking of the above patient we get following symptoms of arsenicum album taken from  Hering's Guiding Symptoms "On lying down at night, feels an oppression of the chest, breathing became short, is obliged to sit up in bed; worse after midnight; drinking coffee or sugar with water relieves somewhat; symptoms worse on going up-stairs, gets out of breath." Other symptoms from kent's materia medica "It is full of dyspnoea, cardiac dyspnoea, and varying forms of asthma. The spells come on in the evening in bed or after midnight; from 1-2 o'clock he is attacked with mental anxiety, dyspnoea, fear of death, coldness, and is covered with, cold sweat.'

Sensation (means how he feel regarding each of the symptoms) here oppression of chest

 Modality  means the factors that increase (aggravates) or decrease (ameliorate) symptoms here sitting up on the bed, drinking coffee, sugar decreases (ameliorates), worse (aggravate) after mid night, going up stairs.

Causation winter

and Concomitance These are symptoms accompanying the main complaint. A concomitant symptom rarely appears in connection with the main complaint or it can "belong to another sphere of disease than the chief ailment."

In each of the patients  location, sensation, modality, and concomitant and causation of each of the symptoms should be elicited. After collecting all the symptoms in this way we get a totality of symptoms. These symptom alone does not constitute totality. Of these symptoms collected most of the symptoms are common to that disease. Here in the above example wheezing accompanied by  difficulty in respiration is common to all the asthma patient. Most of the medicines in our materia medica has that symptoms for asthma. So it becomes difficult in selecting the right remedy. Because that is general. All migraine has headache, all duodenal ulcers has stomach pain, all heart attack has chest pain. These are general. These may be useful for allopathy. All the general symptoms is very common in materia medica also. You may find stomach ache ,head aches, chest pain in most of the medicine. They are general symptoms. General picture only give vague picture of the patient or medicine. If you examine each of the symptoms carefully in materia medica we can see that there are peculiar, striking, singular, uncommon and characteristic symptoms that distinguishes one remedy from another. This peculiar, striking, singular, uncommon and characteristic symptoms is also present in patient that distinguishes an asthma patient from rest of the asthma patients. 

Here our patient  'A' is not  a person suffering from asthma. But an individual suffering from a symptom of asthma. So here we have to find peculiar, striking, singular, uncommon and characteristic symptoms. Oppression of chest is present in every case of asthma. Every asthma has wheezing. Every asthma patient must sit up in bed if it occurs at night. So these are general. If you refer any allopathic books related to disease  you can find general symptoms. On contrary, it is a distinguishing character of homœopathy that all of its practical operations are regulated by the principle of individualization. In its drug provings; its study of the materia medica compiled from those provings; its interrogation of a patient and study of a case; its selection of the remedy and its conduct of whatever accessory treatment is required, it seeks always to individualize. Now we will pick up individualization in each, that is drug proving, materia medica and finally patient, the topic of our study.

 Individualization in drug proving: Symptom patterns associated with various remedies are ascertained by 'provings', in which healthy volunteers are given remedies, often in molecular doses, and the resulting physical, mental and spiritual symptoms are compiled by observers into a 'Drug Picture' known as materia medica, which describe the symptom patterns associated with individual remedies.

The healthy volunteers of all ages, constitutions ,and both sexes are selected for the proving. Age, sex, temperament and constitution; occupation, habits, climate, season, weather; the nature, type, extent and stage of the disease-everything, in fact, which modifies the psychological, physiological, or pathological status of the individual patient, and easily influence the medicine, increasing or decreasing its action. All these modifying factors must be detected, considered, weighed, and their influence estimated in conducting a proving, or treating a case. One will react only to a high potency, another only to a medium potency, or still another only to a low potency or tangible doses of the crude drug. Since it is given in potency, finer and peculiar, striking, singular, uncommon and characteristic symptoms that distinguish a  volunteer from another is also  presented. These is produced due to individualistic difference among the volunteers.

Individualization in materia medica If all materia medica has only general symptoms then we can study pharmacology, an allopathic  book containing drug actions. Since Homoeopathic materia medica contain rare peculiar uncommon symptoms, that is presented by volunteers in proving it is unique and   help us distinguish one medicine from another and thus indivdualization of medicine.

 Individualization in patient:  We are back to our topic, individualization of patient that constitute knowledge of disease. The patient also present  peculiar, striking, singular, uncommon and characteristic symptoms. It recognizes the fact that no two patients, even with the same disease, are exactly alike, and maintains that a true science of therapeutics must enable the practitioner to recognize these differences and find the needed remedy for each individual. In actual practice the "differences" are very often the deciding factor in the choice of the remedy. To use a frequently quoted quip: "Homœopathy does not treat disease. It treats patients." In one word, it individualizes. It may be added that homoeopathy is the only method by which the prescriber is able to thus individualize his medication. 

We have already learnt that in drug proving age, sex, temperament and constitution; occupation, habits, climate, season, weather; the nature, type, extent and stage of the disease-the psychological, physiological, or pathological status of the individual patient modifies, and easily influence the medicine. So if we consider only symptoms of the patient (here asthma)  during drug selection we may not get the desired result because some symptoms in proving are influenced (either increase or decrease the action of medicine)  by age, and/or  by sex, and/or by temperament, and/or  by constitution; and/or  by occupation, and/or by habits, and/or climate, and/or season, and/or weather; and/or the nature, and/or type, and/or extent and stage of the disease- psychological, or physiological, or pathological status or combination of some or all. In order to get the desired action we must consider all these factors when selecting drugs that constitute the totality and individuality.  

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