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PITFALLS IN
HOMEOTHERAPEUTICS
PLACE OF PATHOLOGY IN TOTALITY OF SYMPTOMS
[This brief dissertation was presented at the 18th. International Conference of Asian Homeopathic
Medical League, held at Gending, Kuala Lumpur, from Oct. 3-5, 2009]

M.A.Usmani, Homeopath
M.A.(Phil),D.H.M.S.

Kent somewhere wrote that giving a dose of Aconite in typhoid would spoil the case. A
tyro will ask why not give Aconite if the symptom complex brings it out? The answer lies
nowhere but in pathology. Pathogenetically Aconite cannot produce typhoid or a
continued fever. (Will prescribing Aconite in typhoid harm the case? That’s a separate
question.) Similarly in a case of severe toothache with intense thermal sensitivity and
other definite modalities, Coffea comes out as the most indicated; but it does nothing. It
fails you. Where lies the clue? In pathology. It was a case of receding gums, baring the
dentine and exposing the pulp. Innocent Coffea can’t cause such a destruction, and hence
can’t mend it. Again you give Ipecac., Spongia, or Grindelia Rob. or any other medicine
in a case of asthma. The case is ameliorated time and again, but keeps on recurring.
Why? Because of the neglect of pathology again. In a case of nasal obstruction or hay
asthma you fare beautifully with Nux Vom., Euphrasia, Dulcamara, day in day out. But
when you stop giving these medicines the patient is found at the zero point again. In both
the latter cases disease was dealt on the basis of acute disorder. The real pathology was
not taken into account.

Why did Hahnemann have to ponder and invent the theory of Chronic Miasms? Reason
was the same. Complaints kept on coming back again and again after being ameliorated.
Hahnemann thought that the disease lied elsewhere than in the so-called totality of
symptoms. And he was right. The same difficulty was encountered generally by the
profession. But most of them remained complacent because of the timely alleviation of
the patient’s complaints, and their keeping coming back again and again did not bother
them. But the thinking and conscientious minds among them started feeling that the
remedies should be selected on the totality of symptoms plus the pathological findings;
that in the knowledge of every remedy we should also know the possible pathology that it
can cause and hence cure. Among such people were Boenninghausen, Jahr, Hughes,
Burnertt, Farrington and Cowperthwait and many many others. Few of them did not
agree with the Master in regard to his theory of the miasms. They thought it useless and
redundant. But they could not make out that Hahnemann, in fact, was affirming, by
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inventing the theory of the Chronic Miasms, the inclusion of the pathologic factor in the
totality of symptoms. Hahnemann was a genius, no doubt, but was also ingenious. His
grasp of the situation was all encompassing. He was not dogmatic. Till his last, he kept
on refining the theory and practice of Homeopathy. As in the case of the therapeutic rule
of ‘single remedy, single dose and least repetition’ he waved off the part of least
repetition. He found that the diseases or the miasms were not subdued or vanquished
without repeating the medicine for days and even for weeks. To wave off the condition of
least repetition his ingeniousness invented the 50-Millessimal potencies, on the alibi that
the centesimal potencies were “too strong to be repeated”.

Now the dose of this new potency could be repeated daily. In fact, it was considered
desirable to repeat the remedy at least once daily to expedite the cure. But in fact a near
50-Millessimal scale was already in use in homeotherpeutics. Dr. Jahr, my luminary and
guide, was employing homeopathic remedies in watery solutions: two globules of the size
of a poppy seed, dissolved in half-tumbler of water, and of this solution one teaspoon to
be dispensed every few hours, in an acute diseases. I have added on this, one more
proviso, i.e., when the patient is improving, and you do not yet want to discontinue the
medicine, I instruct to give one spoon of the medicine and add one spoon of fresh water
to keep the stock volume the same. [Hahnemann also prepared and applied watery
solutions of medicines and preferred their such application. Cf. Organon, Articles 286,
288.]

So, we come to the conclusion that the repetition of doses is beneficial and desirable. One
Dr. Desai of India made good of this proviso. He says that chronic ailments cannot be
obliterated without frequent repetition of the indicated remedy, and that too not in low
and medium potencies, but high and the highest. He starts from 1M (usually 10M) to
10M, to 50M, CM to MM. We find him prescribing, e.g., Sulphur 10M, thrice daily, for
indefinite period. Farrington, we have read, warns against the repetition of such high
potencies lest they stamp their morbid effects on the user for life.

This much for the digression; let’s go back to the postulation of the Theory of Chronic
Miasms. I’ve already alluded that by the invention of this theory Hahnemann has
affirmed the place of pathology of the disease as part and parcel of the totality of the
symptoms. Even one feels that the Master has given precedence to pathology over the
jejune and arid complex of the totality of symptoms. Because now, in a chronic case, first
the pathology, or the Miasm, is determined, which brings to the mind a class of remedies;
and from among this class of remedies one remedy is selected on the basis of the totality
of other symptoms.

Hahnemann reduced all the nosological disorders, that a book on pathology can contain,
to the three heads of the miasms. All the functional, allergic or deficiency, etc., diseases
were relegated to the Miasm of Psora. All the disorders which have the brunt of morbid
over-growth and multiplication of the cells of certain tissues, hypertrophies, tumours,
cysts and wart like excrescences were put under Sycotic Miasm; and all the pathologically
destructive, necrotic, and cancerous phenomena was given over to Syphilitic Miasm.
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People can say that this is an over simplification of an intricate phenomenon. They may
be both right and wrong. But practically this classification works, and is tried and trusted
for over a century now. Homeopaths have countless cures of the so-called incurable
diseases to their credit. But this does not mean that we should totally disregard the
advancements and researches done in the field of pathology and pathologic physiology by
the dominant school. Their magnum opus is a torch bearer for all scientific and
inquisitive minds. No person, among us, has made the best of this knowledge, except the
great Dr. Compton Burnett. He gave beautiful inventions and thoughts in the field of
homeotherapeutics based on this scientific research. And now it is anybody’s field to
follow the fecund tract that the great Burnett blazed so ingeniously. To give a rocky solid
foundation to homeotherpeutics, pathology should be given its due place. We must think
that a prescription without considering pathology is a yacht without a rudder. Let me
quote the immortal words of Dr. Burnett, he says:

"Far be it from me to underestimate the importance of symptoms or speak

lightly of all symptoms to find the remedy in a given case, but far be it from
me to treat the symptom or the total symptoms as the only way to find the
remedy because the totality of symptoms can be and often is a scientific
means of palliation”.

Upon his being criticized, he says:

I do not care, I argue that the future of the Homeopathy is for pathologists
Homoeopaths and to cure serious diseases (with a pathological basis) we
will have homeopathic remedies appropriate to the morbid anatomy at least
in its early stages. No drug is able to heal homoeopathically a morbid state
that it is not able to produce it.

Biography: Dr. James Compton Burnett, 1840-1901 by

Dr. Robert Seror

Burnette is a priceless asset to homeopathy and a roll model of a faithful homeopath, who
gave the rightful position to Hahnemann’s three miasms and contributed to the fourth, i.e.
the tubercular miasm, by inventing the nosode of Bacillinum. He discovered and
introduced new aspects of many already proven medicines from his insight of chemico-
biologic research on diseases by the dominant school. He also introduced a bunch of
immortal medicines that have local affinity to vital organs of the body. To pay a homage
to the memory of such a great soul, let’s make this year a year of Burnett.

M.A.Usmani, Homeopath

M.A.(Phil),D.H.M.S.

E-Mail: similiadoc@yahoo.com
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: usmani@brain.net.pk

Gending, Malaysia, Oct. 5, 2009