Elizabeth Wright-Hubbard
Homoeopathy as Art and Science
Reading excerpt
Homoeopathy as Art and Science
of Elizabeth Wright-Hubbard
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The Meaning of Homoeopathy
The four fundamentals of homoeopathy, as stated by its founder
Hahnemann in his Organon, may be briefly put as follows:
1) The proving on healthy persons of substances to be used as medicines.
2) The selection and administration of remedies thus proved according
to the Law of Similars.
3) The single remedy.
4) The minimum dose.
Granting that these are the four fundamental tenets of homoeopathy, the
question of its status then arises. Is it a system of medicine? Is it a purely
sectarian term? Is it a therapeutic specialty? In order to answer this
question of status we must get down to simple facts to see, not only how
homoeopathy differs from orthodox medicine, but also what they have in
common.
We always like to begin with a common basis. What is the object of all
conscientious physicians? We would answer, categorically: to cure the
sick, to prevent others from becoming ill, and to raise the standard of
health in all people. How does modern medicine try to accomplish this?
First, by finding out what normality is, through the study of anatomy,
physiology, physiological chemistry and so on. Second, by finding out
what the varieties of ill health are. Modern medicine emphasizes the fact
that many disturbances of health are due to psychic or sociological
causative factors. Aside from these it searches for anatomical or
physiological changes in the sick person and classifies these changes,
when found, under some disease nomenclature. This search is called
diagnosis, and modern medicine feels that the possibility of cure
depends, in large measure, on the certainty of diagnosis. It defines as
pathology the organic structural changes due to ill health which it finds
before or after death. It finds that many 'diseases' are accompanied by
some variety of bacteria which it considers to be one of the causative
factors. In short, modern medicine feels that it must find out all the
'facts' that fit in with its own concept of disease.
To all of this the homoeopath subscribes, but he feels that it is only the
beginning of what he must learn about his patient. The spontaneous,
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Leseprobe von Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard – Homoeopathy As Art And
Science
Brief Study Course
characteristic things that each patient longs to tell, be they very general
or minutely particular, are of special interest to the homoeopath, for they
individualize the case, bringing out that particular patient's reaction to
the 'disease' he suffers from. The busy modern doctor feels he does not
need to know these salient points, as to him they are not signposts but
merely clutter.
At this point modern medicine is ready to try to cure the disease it has
diagnosed. What laws of cure does it follow? First, the commonsense
principle of rectifying anything mechanically wrong and instituting
appropriate hygiene, diet and so on. When it comes to the prescription of
actual drugs, those that are given are not uniformly governed by any one
law. The intent is to give them on a physiological basis, which means that
they are experimented with in laboratories in crude dosage, and mainly
on animals. It is more or less expected, by analogy, that what slows the
heart in the frog, rabbit or dog will do so in the human.
In addition to laboratory data on animals, many drugs are tried out
empirically on patients and pass into general usage in accordance with
their success. A few forms of therapy are aimed at the individual as a
whole, taken as a type - for instance, endocrine therapy, but the
majority of modern drugs are given for a definite physiological effect on
one organ or function of the body. They are thus given with no regard to
the varying individualities of the patient who may have that organ or
function disordered, as for example in the use of cholagogues, digitalis,
diuretics and so on. A large part of modern therapy is not even aimed at
physiological alteration (the drugs being given according to the law of
contraries), nor at chemical antidoting (such as alkalis for acid stomach),
but is frankly and only palliative, as in the various analgesics for
headaches or neuralgias. Most modern drugging, in short, is aimed at
specific symptoms and makes no attempt to get back to the constitutional
cause of the disease. The success of this type of therapy is necessarily
uneven. Furthermore, much of it is actually suppressive. It is an
interesting fact that many cases of apparent cure prove to be those in
which the drug given on a physiological or symptomatic basis was,
unknown to the prescriber, a similar, in the homoeopathic sense, to the
case in hand.
It should be clearly stated that homoeopaths need the accepted scientific
training and the procedures of diagnosis and laboratory data. Their
special technique begins at the moment of starting therapy, although
they bring to this crisis of cure a broader philosophy of illness and a
special knowledge of each individual patient.
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Leseprobe von Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard – Homoeopathy As Art And
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The Meaning of Homoeopathy
Homoeopathic therapy is based on the hypothesis, ancient as
Hippocrates, that like cures like (similia similibus curentur). The
persistent and enlightened practice of homoeopathy can prove that this
principle is a basic law of nature. It must also be demonstrable by
laboratory technique, but the systematic working out of this has not as
yet been done, mainly because homoeopaths are so beguiled by the
practical application of it that they have not given suitable attention to
the laboratory end. (Only in recent years has there been a significant
effort by homoeopaths to carry out controlled studies using homoeo-
pathic methods. — Ed.)
We have sketched modern medicine's approach and attitude and have
shown up to what point homoeopathy concurs. It is also appropriate to
give briefly here the main points of difference between the two. These
are developed more fully in the rest of the course.
1) That there is a natural law of cure - like cures like.
2) That the basis of therapy is a vital rather than a physiological one.
That is, the vital force must be stimulated to cure the patient and only
so can he be really cured, and that any other drug therapy is palliative
or suppressive.
3) That the single remedy at a time is all that is needed. This follows
from statement (1), because there cannot be two things most similar to
another. The single remedy has the further advantage that when one
thing is given one can evaluate its action, whereas, if four are given
you cannot know which helped, or in what proportion.
4) That a minimum dose is essential. This is based on the Arndt-Schultz
law that small doses stimulate, medium doses paralyze and large doses
kill. In other words, that the action of small and very large doses of
the same substance on living matter is opposite. Under this heading
comes the whole potency question; this is considered by many to be
the greatest snag in homoeopathy but is, together with the Law of
Similars, the key to the whole matter.
5) That the materia medica must, because of the Law of Similars, be
composed of the results of remedy experimentation with small doses
on relatively healthy humans, that is to say, 'provings'.
6) That disease is not an actual entity, but a name given for classifi
cation purposes to manifestations of departures from normality in
individuals.
7) That individualization is essential, i.e. that no two people are exactly
alike in sickness or in health, and that while even homoeopaths must
classify, they draw vastly finer distinctions. For example, to ordinary
medicine there is but one disease pneumonia, though with several
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Leseprobe von Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard – Homoeopathy As Art And
Science
Brief Study Course
sub-types - broncho-, lobar, viral and others; to homoeopathy there
are as many types as there are remedy symptom pictures. Any remedy
in the homoeopathic materia medica may be called for in pneumonia,
although only rarely will one outside of the thirty or forty in frequent
use be needed. Theoretically there should be as many types of
pneumonia as there are people who have it, but owing to the small
number of proved remedies compared to the substances that might be
proved, there can only be as many pneumonia types to date as we
have remedies for. Homoeopaths, in other words, classify pneu-
monias as Aconite, Bryonia, Gelsemium, Phosphorus, Tartar Emetic
pneumonias, to name but a few.
8) That suppression is one of the greatest dangers in medicine.
9) That chronic disease is a constitutional matter, and that this has a
philosophical bearing of inestimable importance on prescribing. One
cannot practise true homoeopathy without a concept of chronic
disease.
Having given the main points of contact and difference between
homoeopathy and regular medicine, we can now return to our earlier
question concerning the status of homoeopathy. It is not a sectarian
term, although even a slight study of its history will often show how it has
been necessary for it to be considered one, both by its opponents and its
adherents. It is a therapeutic specialty and, as such, is more easily
grasped by the modern student, but it is much more than that. 'System of
medicine' is a term which conveys little to my mind; it sounds like
somebody's textbook or treatise on one of the minor 'opathies'.
Homoeopathy is not an 'opathy'; it is the first part of the term, the
'homoeo', the similarity, which we must bear in mind. It is a method of
cure according to law, based, as all great things are, on a far-reaching
philosophy. // is the central core of medicine, whether recognized or not,
and is thoroughly compatible with the best of modern science.
Bibliography
The Law of Cure, Ridpath.
The Patient's Dilemma, T. M. Dishington.
The Principles of Practice of Homoeopathy, C. E. Wheeler.
'A Symposium on Homoeopathy', The Homoeopathic Recorder, Vol.
XLIV, May 1929, p. 293.
The Organon of the Art of Healing, Samuel Hahnemann.
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Leseprobe von Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard – Homoeopathy As Art And
Science
Elizabeth Wright-Hubbard
Homoeopathy as Art and Science
352 pages, pb
publication 1990
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