Clinical tips/Clinical gems
1) Toothache in children from decayed teeth, with relief from the application of cold water, finds its best remedy in COFFEA.
2) UVA URSI – This remedy finds no equal when cystic and urethral symptoms are referable to stone in the bladder. You have, as symptomatic of the drug, burning, scalding urination; the flow of urine stops suddenly as if a stone had rolled in front of the internal orifice of the urethra. When the urine passes it is ropy from the admixture of mucus and blood. The drug seems to diminish inflammatory thickening of the cystic walls, and relieves suffering until the stone can be removed by operation.
3) OLEUM ANIMALE has cured megrim with polyuria, the urine being perfectly clear.
[Oleum animale aethereum – migraine with polyuria]4) We may also make use of SABADILLA in worms, when there are nausea and vomiting associated with a peculiar colic, as though the bowels were being whirled around like a wheel.
5) Studying the action of OLEANDER on the abdominal organs, we find emptiness and goneness in the pit of the stomach, even after eating, relieved by taking brandy. You will find this symptom indicating Oleander in very weak women who have infants at the breast. Immediately after nursing, the patient is seized with a tremor, and is so weak that she is scarcely able to walk across the room.
OLEANDER is useful in diarrhoea. The stools are thin and contain undigested food, the characteristic symptom being that the patient passes, undigested, the food he had eaten the day before. This symptom you may notice in children with cholera infantum and marasmus. Another symptom calling for Oleander in infants and children is, “every time they pass wind they soil their diapers.”
Here you must study Oleander in conjunction with Ferrum, Arsenicum, Argentum nitricum, and Cinchona. Ferrum has diarrhoea with stool containing undigested food. The stool is unattended with pain, and is apt to occur during a meal.
6) Often you find CANTHARIS indicated in gravel in children when they have this irritation extending down the penis, with almost constant pulling at that organ.
Cantharis you will find indicated in acute cystitis more frequently than all other remedies put together.
It is also indicated in haematuria of inflammatory origin.
7) APIS also acts on the synovial membranes, giving a perfect picture of synovitis, particularly when it affects the knee. It is indicated when there are sharp, lancinating, stinging pains shooting through the joint, with aggravation from the slightest motion.
BRYONIA affects the joints and their synovial membranes, but the pains are stitching in character, with tension, and they are better from the warmth of the bed, while the Apis pains are better from cold applications.
8) TARENTULA CUBENSIS, the hairy spider, causes a perfect picture of carbuncle, even to the sloughing, and claims place as a rival to Arsenicum and Carbo veg. It may be used effectually when there are great prostration and diarrhoea, with intermitting fever of evening exacerbation. In relieving the atrocious pains accompanying this condition it acts almost like magic. It should, therefore, be compared with Arsenicum, and no less with Lachesis, Anthracinum and Silicea.
9) LACHESIS is a very valuable remedy at the climaxis, especially in the woman who has exhausted herself by frequent pregnancies and hard work. In this worn-out condition there occurs a sudden cessation of the menses. Suppression or non-appearance of discharges always makes the Lachesis patient worse. Perhaps previous to the climaxis she was worse before the flow than during it. The pulse is weak and tremulous. There are the peculiar headache, and the annoying symptoms of the mind, hot flashes and nervous symptoms characteristic of the drug.
10) Let me next enumerate the typhoid symptoms of COCCULUS; under this heading I shall speak of those of the brain. You would not expect Cocculus to be indicated in a case of typhoid fever when the changes in or ulceration of Peyer’s patches are marked, or where there are profuse diarrhoea, pneumonia, and similar complications. But in the nervous type of the fever, when the cerebro-spinal system is bearing the brunt of the disease, Cocculus becomes one of the remedies that will help us through the case. The symptoms indicating it are the following: the patient complains of great vertigo, and this is made worse when sitting, or when attempting to change from a reclining to a sitting posture. It is often associated with nausea, inclination to vomit, and even fainting. Bryonia also has this symptom. So far as the symptom itself is concerned there is no difference between Bryonia and Cocculus, yet, if you examine the case thoroughly, you will find that in Cocculus it is weakness of the cerebro-spinal nerves that gives origin to it. There is great confusion of the mind; a sort of bewildered, heavy state might better explain what I mean. It requires a great effort to speak plainly. In some cases they cannot find the words they wish to convey their meaning. Generally, such patients lie quietly wrapped in thought; the eyelids are heavy, as though they could hardly be lifted. Here is a symptom reminding you of Gelsemium. If the patient is still conscious enough to describe to you his condition, he will complain of a feeling of tightness of the brain, as though every nerve in the head were being drawn up tightly. At other times, he has this empty hollow, vacant feeling in the head. Any attempt to move the patient produces faintness or even fainting away. The tongue is usually coated white or yellow; there is bitter taste in the mouth. The abdomen is greatly distended and tympanitic; this tympanites under Cocculus is not the same as under Cinchona, Carbo veg., Colchicum, Sulphur, or even Lycopodium.
Conceptual gems
1) Homoeopaths have been criticised for attributing to drugs the power of acting upon one side of the body in preference to the other. The simple fact that disease chooses sides ought to be enough to lead one to believe that drugs may do the same. The left side of the body is more apt to be affected by drugs having a depressing action, because that side of the body is weaker.
2) You can find twenty drugs with precisely the same symptoms. How will you decide between them? Apparently they are all identical, but not in their general action. How is this general action found? By the study of the drug as a whole. But here is a place where physicians may go too precipitately and fall into pathology. They say that as Belladonna produces a picture of scarlatina and as Arsenicum produces a picture of cholera Asiatica, even unto the growths found in the excrement, therefore these substances must be the remedies for their respective diseases. Baptisia produces a perfect picture of typhoid fever, therefore they say Baptisia must be the remedy in typhoid.
As we carry out the view I expressed a few minutes ago, when we examine a patient for disease we proceed in exactly the same way as we do in the case of the proving. We note the changes we see and the sensations the patient feels; we look at his tongue, we examine his urine, we put all these together and we make a pathological picture of that man. Suppose you decide the case to be one of typhoid fever. That must not be valued except by comparison, showing how the present case differs from the general disease. If the genius of the case under treatment suits the genius of Baptisia, and, if you give that remedy, the patient will recover whether you call his disease typhoid fever or mumps. If the genius of Baptisia does not suit the genius of the case, then that remedy will do no good. If the patient has the Baptisia symptom, “thinks he is double, or all broken to pieces,” that drug will not cure unless the genius of Baptisia is there, too. I may be permitted to recall a remark of Carroll Dunham. At a certain consultation there was chosen for a patient a drug which seemed to have many of his symptoms, but when Dr. Dunham was asked for his opinion as to whether that drug was the similimum, he replied, “No, I think not, for the general character of Ignatia does not correspond with the general character of the patient, which corresponds to Baryta. You will find his most prominent symptoms under Baryta.” One physician decided for one drug, the other for another. Each went by his study of the drug; one understood Ignatia in part, the other by its totality.
FEW HOMOEOPATHS TALK ABOUT FARRINGTON’S CLINICAL MATERIA THESE DAYS, IF I AM NOT WRONG.I WILL QUOTE THREE HOMOEOPATHS, WHOM I READ OR HEARD, WHO EMPHASIZE THE SIGANFICANCE OF FARRINGTON’S MATERIA MEDICA.
The significance of Farrington’s Materia Medica
Farrington goes into the details of all symptoms, into the very depth of each symptom and makes the pinpoint selection. Explanation of every important feature and symptom of a remedy with its full minuteness that we see in Farrington’s Clinical Materia Medica is seldom found in any other book. It transforms a good Homoeopath to a powerful prescriber and this is why Farrington is considered, like Kent, one of the greatest teachers of Materia Medica.
(Dr. Mir Zahid)
Farrington’s clinical Materia Medica is useful to study families of remedies and is the best book for differential Materia Medica especially for practitioners.
(Dr. Farokh Master)
Lectures on clinical Materia Medica in family order by EA Farrington and Homoeopathic drug pictures by ML Tyler these are the two Materia Medica’s that I highly recommend.
(Dr. Sahadeo Kuchar, my grandfather)
References
- Lectures on clinical Materia Medica by Dr EA Farrington
- Materia Medica of Homoeopathic medicines by Dr SR Phatak
- Understanding and utilizing the Homoeopathic Materia Medica by Dr Mir Zahid
- Clinical Organon of medicine by Dr Farokh Master
- Discussion with my grandfather regarding the study of Homoeopathic Materia Medica
