CEDH Magazine - DECEMBER 2017 - NUMBER 46

EVERYDAY PRACTICE Module: the patient in his globality

Clinical case Dermatology

Practitioner’s improvement

The specialist’s corner Plan the pathological (part 2)

History&Culture The clinical homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de SaintGratien: the patients (part 3)

Materia Medica Lycopodium

Psoriasis

Teaching Clinical Homeopathy

CEDH magazine C O N T I N U I N G M E D I C A L E D U C AT I O N C E D H M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • N U M B E R 4 6

EDITORIAL

Sharing mutual enrichment regarding the place of homeopathy in today’s medicine

Yves Lévêque, MD Editor in Chief

O

ur will at the CEDH is to share and promote mutual enrichment regarding the place of homeopathy in today’s medicine. This is why we decided to invite to Barcelona during our 6th International Conference, physicians, pharmacists, key opinion leaders, in order to have them present the latest medical advances in their specialties.

In light of the rich exchanges with experts, homeopathic physicians shared their experiences and practices, based on data collection and analysis of their clinical cases in their daily practice.

Each event feeds the human and international richness of our school allowing an opening on the medicine of the World to benefit the health of our patients.

Thus, the words diversity, complementarity and quality of the work take on all their full meaning.

It is the same logic that we find in this issue of the magazine: n Prescription in chronic, considering the “Patient in His Globality” to underline

See you very soon ! n

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

the need to prevent and anticipate. n The sharing of experiences around clinical cases or treatment of psoriasis put forward the importance of the clinical approach, n Roots of history, tribute to Dr. Guermonprez and a different light on Lycopodium enrich our knowledge and our vision, We have here the illustration of all CEDH specificities: • Open mind, • Tolerance, • Consensual values, • Interactive methodology.

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SUMMARY

CEDH magazine

3 EDITORIAL , SHARING MUTUAL ENRICHMENT

46 N°

Published by CEDH, 60 boulevard Diderot, 75012 Paris - www.cedh.org

Editor in Chief : Yves Lévêque, MD Editorial board : Yves Lévêque, MD Frédéric Voirin, MD Contributors for this issue : Jean-François Becker, MD Daniel Berthier, MD Franck Choffrut, MD Didier Deswarte, MD Josette Nouguez, MD Marie-Hélène Ribreau, MD Fréderic Voirin, MD Guy Villano, MD Production : Atelier Chalopin, Sérigraphie Translator : Bénédicte Clement Illustrations : Fotolia ISSN : 1950-8832 Legal mention : 0516 T 88691 Publication date : December 2017.

Yves Lévêque, MD, 03 5 CLINICAL CASE DERMATOLOGY

Josette Nouguez, MD, 05

7 EVERYDAY PRACTICE MODULE “THE PATIENT IN HIS GLOBALIT Y”, Marie-Hélène Ribreau, MD, Fréderic Voirin, MD, 07

9 PRACTITIONER’S IMPROVEMENT PSORIASIS

Daniel Berthier, MD, 9

13 THE SPECIALIST’S CORNER PLAN THE PATHOLOGICAL (PART 2)

Guy Villano, MD, 13

17 MATERIA MEDICA LYCOPODIUM

Guy Villano, MD, 17

22 QUIZ , 22

23 HISTORY&CULTURE THE CLINICAL HOMEOPATHY OF DR BEAUVAIS DE SAINT-GRATIEN DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

(PART 3): THE PATIENTS

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Jean-François Becker, MD & Franck Choffrut, MD, 23

33 TRIBUTE IN MEMORIAM MICHEL GUERMONPREZ

Didier Deswarte, MD, 33

CLINICAL

CASE

Dermatology Jean, or how a poorly assessed information can lead us on the wrong path…

Dr Josette Nouguez, MD

DERMATOLOGY

CLINICAL CASE

the normal limit. Venous insufficiency with varicose veins and persistence of some patches of dry eczema.

RHEUMATOLOGY: arthritis in the lower back.

JEAN, 65 YEARS OLD, RETIRED TEACHER, CAME TO THE CONSULTATION FOR AN OOZING AND PRURITIC DERMATITIS ON THE BACK OF HIS HANDS.

• It started 4 months ago and became unbearable because “the pruritus wakes me up and I scratch until I bleed. After scratching, the pain and oozing get worse”.

• This dermatitis appeared suddenly following a varicose ulcer for which he was treated by phlebotonics and topical steroids.

• At first he presented with a few vesicles on the back of the hands and they spread quickly.

• Jean is a quiet, patient man, quite slow and emotional. He says he gets angry sometimes, but he is not resentful. His sleep got worse since his disorders appeared, but he doesn’t overdramatize.

• He insists again on the aggravation of his disorders mid-afternoon (4-5pm).

• Rather cold-sensitive, he sweats easily from all body parts. He cannot stand heat on his legs and hands.

CLINICAL EXAMINATION FAMILY HISTORY FATHER: Gallstones.

MOTHER: eczema.

PERSONAL HISTORY Bronchitis in the winter in the past years.

AT THE INTERVIEW SKIN: oozing lesions covered by thick crusts. Burning, violent pruritus aggravated by heat. The pruritus episodes start everyday around 4-5 pm and get worse in the evening. No notion of local improvement by cold or heat.

URINARY TRACT: prostate monitoring for hypertrophy.

CARDIOVASCULAR: blood pressure in the upper range of

n TREATMENT PROPOSED FOR ONE MONTH • Calcarea carbonica ostrearum 30 CH (Psoric CRM).

• Lycopodium clavatum 15 CH: 5 pellets in the morning (ST).

• Graphites 15 CH + Mezereum 15 CH: 5 pellets of each morning and evening (Individual Reaction of the Patient = IRP.)

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DIGESTIVE TRACT: good appetite but the digestion is sometimes slow with alternation of morning diarrhea and constipation. Cannot stand fatty foods.

HEIGHT = 1.70 m, WEIGHT = 80 kg.

BLOOD PRESSURE = 145/85 mmHg. ON THE HANDS, concomitance of: • Oozing, honey-yellow lesions and other lesions with more oozing, yellowish, covered with thick, dark crusts; • Bleeding lesions due to scratching; • Dry, flaking patches.

DRY SKIN all over the body

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CLINICAL

CASE

Dermatology clinical case COMMENTS CALCAREA CARBONICA OSTREARUM oozing dermatitis and dry patches of skin, slow digestion, hypertrophied prostate, arthritis. Slow, emotional individual. Short, stocky and overweight,

AFTER 2 WEEKS, Jean calls me to tell me that after the dose of Sulfur, his pruritus increased on the 1st day, then a lull for 3 days and everything started again. Same thing after the 2nd dose.

LYCOPODIUM CLAVATUM dry and oozing dermatitis with pruritus, scratched until it bleeds, aggravation +++ from 4pm.

GRAPHITES

n I THEN PRESCRIBE • Sulfur 30 CH, 5 pellets per day.

honey-like secretions/dry skin.

MEZEREUM hicker secretions, darker crusts, violent pruritus not improved when scratching.

AFTER A MONTH, the eczema almost disappeared and Jean feels better overall, his blood pressure is stable at 130/80 mmHg.

JEAN COMES BACK AFTER A MONTH, • the oozing lesions regressed but the pruritus is still intense with the same aggravation modalities around 4pm.

• He is very aggravated by heat.

• His CRM is Psoric. This timetable aggravation was too easy (!), n I DECIDE TO GIVE HIM:

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• Sulfur 30 CH: one dose on Sundays; • Graphites 15 CH and • Mezereum 15 CH: 5 pellets morning and evening.

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CONCLUSION the CRM was Psoric, the skin was in fact a pathological target (lesions + sensation) found in Lycopodium, Calcarea carbonica and Sulfur, but the insistence of Jean on the aggravation around 4-5pm led me on the wrong therapeutic pathways.

SULFUR WAS IN FACT HIS CRM AND SENSITIVE TYPE MEDICINE. n

Module EVERYDAY

PRACTICE

The patient in his Globality Marie-Hélène Ribreau, MD Fréderic Voirin, MD

S

trong of our experience as teachers of clinical homeopathy in all its different forms (homeopathic therapeutic diploma, homeopathic therapeutic modules) we evidenced a common issue, the difficulty encountered by our learners to “prescribe in chronic”. “Prescribe in chronic”, what a strange saying, almost

taboo, at least full of fears, beliefs and hesitations. Naturally, our writing team started to wonder about the origins of the difficulties voiced in order to propose an adapted module.

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Implement this module in the CEDH training offer

FOR HOMEOPATHS, THERE ARE SEVERAL MANNERS IN WHICH A PATHOLOGY CAN EXPRESS ITSELF OVER TIME:

• recurrent episodes with a return to normal in between each episode;

This module is centered on enhancing the essential homeopathic medicines from the Materia Medica for a comprehensive care management of our patients, which is the real strength of homeopathy.

• in a slow and progressive manner without returning to a state of health;

• or by associating both, recurrent episodes on It completes the current CEDH training offer and remains accessible to healthcare professionals who attended a specific training course and have a daily homeopathic practice.

This term is quite confusing. Here “chronic” means “for pathologies that last over time, and express themselves either as recurrent episodes, or as progressive disorders” and not “for permanent or long-lasting pathologies”.

For homeopaths, there are several manners in which a pathology can express itself over time”.

“

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“Prescribe in chronic” what does it mean?

a permanent pathological background that gets worse.

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EVERYDAY

PRACTICE

Module “The patient in his Globality” “PRESCRIBING IN CHRONIC” IS THE SUBJECT OF OTHER COMMON BELIEFS:

– regarding the effectiveness of their treatment, indicating what they can expect and at what time.

• length and complexity of the consultation; • difficulties in appraising the effectiveness of

• IMPROVE THEIR DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY during the consultation.

the treatment; • beliefs and doubts on the length of the prescription before being able to evaluate its relevance.

• DEEPEN THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE MATERIA MEDICA by studying the 17 essential medicines very commonly used in practice.

Like any therapeutic act, there is a balance between the will to prescribe and obtaining a positive outcome and the efforts needed to achieve that goal.

This module is different from the previous approaches by talking of “support for the patient in his globality” in order to reconcile our physicians with the notion of “pathologies occurring over time”, synonymous of Chronic Reactional Mode, and “pre-existing sensitivity” synonymous of the Sensitive Type.

Our intention is to provide them with a method that is easy to implement, precise objectives, facilitating tools to build their prescription, and a better knowledge and use of the information found in the Materia Medica.

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Module content During the 4 days, students acquire a cross-sectional knowledge of 17 “essential” polychrests in the management of chronic diseases.

Through 28 clinical cases covering 80% of the consultation motives in chronic diseases and role play situations that are similar to “real life” in a medical office, knowledge acquired during these 4 days can be immediately put to use.

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The multiple objectives of this training

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• REASSURE LEARNERS on what they are already cabable of doing with their previous training through clinical cases.

• BOOST THEIR CONFIDENCE: – regarding their reasoning for the choice of the medicine(s);

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The main ideas of this module A simple and quick consultation in seven steps.

• A METHODOLOGY FOR CHOOSING THE MEDICINE by matching targets and chronic reactional mode.

• DETERMINE A PRECISE OBJECTIVE, even in consultation with multiple motives, and decide what I treat today in this patient and in how long I will reassess the relevance of my treatment.

• THE CHOICE OF THE TREATMENT, its objective, the choice of the dilution in accordance with the CEDH consensus.

• A CONNECTION WITH THE COMMON MEDICAL WORK and reasoning, notions of preventive and predictive strategy.

• A COHESION OF THE CONSULTATION, which is no longer either allopathic or homeopathic, but rather clinical, taking into account the Patient in his Globality.

CONCLUSION Participating in the module “Patient in his Globality” allows the synthesis of the acquisitions of the previous modules or training and acquiring a structured, simple and easy method to prescribe in chronic pathologies. n

The homeopatic treatement of

PRACTITIONER’S

IMPROVEMENT

Psoriasis Daniel Berthier, MD

P

soriasis is a chronic inflammatory dermatitis affecting 2 to 4% of the French population (about one million French persons), with 60,000 new cases per year. It is characterized by symmetrical erythematous-flaking lesions. It is not contagious, but leads mainly to cosmetic outcomes with

a potential social or professional impact

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The causes of the disease rely on multiple factors WE ESSENTIALLY INCRIMINATED: • GENETICS and its resurgence within one family; • AUTOIMMUNE MECHANISMS involving T lymphocytes and their cytokines: tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), interleukin 17; • ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS such as stress, emotional shock, physical trauma, asthenia; • METABOLIC FACTORS (diabetes, cholesterol); • INFECTIONS, especially streptococcus infections in children; • CERTAIN MEDICINES: beta-blockers, angiotensinconverting-enzyme inhibitor (ACE inhibitor); • POTENTIAL AGGRAVATION DURING MENSES; • ALCOHOL AND SMOKING, do not seem to trigger flareups, but impair the effectiveness of the classic treatment; • SUN, with its ambivalent action: it seems to improve the lesions at first, but aggravates them secondarily.

THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISM underlines an increased epidermal cell turnover rate (3 days instead of 28) keratinocytes that do not have time to lose their nucleus and accumulate at the surface of the skin in flakes.

Psoriasis under the microscope

Epidermal cell turnover rate in 3 days instead of 28. They do not have time to shed their nucleus.

Cell nuclei

Stratum corneum

Epidermis

Cells of the stratum corneum have a nucleus and locally the skin is thicker, red and flaking.

Dermis

Psoriasis under the microscope

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PRACTITIONER’S IMPROVEMENT

Psoriasis

2 3

Generalized erythrodermic psoriasis

Nail psoriasis

The most common localizations

knees, elbows, lower back, and scalp. But there are some generalized psoriasis, nail psoriasis or even mucosa psoriasis.

The objective of the usual treatment

is not to treat the disease, but to manage the lesions and improve the patient’s acceptance of the pathology.

The homeopathic treatment shares this objective, without forgetting the necessary humility in the analysis of our results: this disease evolves by flareups, with remission periods that can last several years!

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Mucosal psoriasis

Clinical types or specific cases • Guttate psoriasis frequently appearing after infection with streptococci; • Palmar-Plantar psoriasis with or without pustules, very keratotic and debilitating; • Nail psoriasis (see above) with onychodystrophy; • Pustular psoriasis with patches and non-follicular pustules; • Generalized erythrodermic psoriasis; • Oral psoriasis often caused in children by infection with streptococci; • Acrodermatitis continua of Hallopeau with fissures on the fingers and distal osteitis; • Psoriatic arthritis affiliated with autoimmune diseases.

s

THE EVALUATION OF THE SEVERITY OF THE DISEASE IS BASED ON TWO TESTS:

Guttate psoriasis

• THE DERMATOLOGY LIFE QUALITY INDEX (DLQI) SCORE a 10question index leading to a score of severity from 10 to 30; • THE PSORIASIS AND SEVERITY INDEX (PASI) from 0 to 72.

Pustular t psoriasis

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THE COMMON TREATMENT

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essentially topical corticosteroids, emollients, topical keratolytics, vitamin D derivatives or topical retinoids.

The most severe forms that specialists encounter require PUVA therapy, oral retinoid agents or even immunosuppressive drugs (cyclosporine, methotrexate).

s Palmar-Plantar psoriasis with pustules

PRACTITIONER’S IMPROVEMENT

Psoriasis

It associates, like in any chronic pathology, one or two symptomatic medicines supported by one or several terrain medicines. These two approaches can in fact merge into one medicine, which can be useful on two levels.

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SYMPTOMATIC MEDICINES are prescribed, aside from specific circumstances, in daily high dilutions, taking into account the anatomical or pathophysiological similitude.

The effectiveness of these dilution choices is validated by the daily use.

MEDICINES MOST COMMONLY FOUND IN PSORIASIS ARE

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ARSENICUM ALBUM its pathogenesis indicates peeling erythrodermic psoriasis with two types of flakes, either furfuraceous, like flour, or like large, thick scales, on a thickened skin, like leather, hard to fold.

This symptomatic medicine can also be used as a terrain medicine after a complete analysis of the person and his history.

4 s

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The homeopathic treatment

s The two types of flakes for Arsenicum album, 1-2: either furfuraceous, like flour, 3-4: or like large, thick scales, on a thickened skin, like leather, hard to fold.

KALIUM ARSENICOSUM has the same aspect than Arsenicum album, but the pruritus (mild) is aggravated by heat.

ARSENICUM IODATUM corresponds to scales finer than Arsenicum album, the size of dandruffs, on a thinner skin, with a lichen-like aspect (as if combed through).

Repeated scratching can also give this aspect.

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Flakes finer for Arsenicum iodatum, the size of dandruffs, on a thinner skin, with a lichen-like aspect (as if combed through)

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PRACTITIONER’S IMPROVEMENT

Psoriasis BERBERIS consists of dermatitis circinate lesions, most often related to mycoses, which can look like round psoriasis patches.

NATRUM SULFURICUM often has an aspect less commonly encountered in psoriasis. In that case, the flakes are large and fine (like after a sunburn) on a shiny, red dermis, appearing to be wet.

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OTHER SYMPTOMATIC MEDICINES THAT CAN BE INTERESTING SELENIUM in psoriasis of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet; 2

ANTIMONIUM CRUDUM which is more a medicine of hyperkeratosis than parakeratosis, but its prescription yields good results.

MIXED MEDICINES both symptomatic and terrain medicines, they can be added to our therapeutic array. We already reviewed Arsenicum album and Iodatum, let’s look at others:

SEPIA with fine scales on a psoriasis with fissures, bleeding easily. The terrain will always be determined by the person’s pathological tendencies and their evolution, and incidentally by morphological or psychological data;

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LYCOPODIUM CLAVATUM

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is interesting because of is elective action on the skin, sensitive to psychosomatic factors. The etiology of stress is especially present in persons with a known terrain and who often have metabolic disorders;

LUESINUM is a great terrain medicine of dystrophic skin.

The symptomatic aspect is often characterized by fissures.

s 1 - Berberis: dermatitis circinate lesions, most often related to mycoses, which can look like round psoriasis patches.

2 - Natrum Sulfuricum: the flakes are large and fine (like after a sunburn) on a shiny, red dermis, appearing to be wet.

A GREAT NUMBER OF OTHER TERRAIN MEDICINES can be indicated according to the context (sensitive type and reactional mode). They are necessary for the symptomatic medicines to trigger a long-term action.

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Conclusion

Results of the homeopathic treatment are excellent to restore the patient to a state of equilibrium, but rather uncertain for psoriasis.

It is very difficult to attribute a long-lasting improvement; or even less so a cure, to the homeopathic treatment. However, the patient’s acceptance of the disease is better under treatment. One thing can make us feel better: folklore says that on the day of our death, we recover our baby’s skin… n

Second part

THE SPECIALIST’S

CORNER

2

I

Plan the pathological Guy Villano, MD

s it possible to predict the potential onset of pathologies in our patients according to the medicine of the person? In short, “tell me who you are and I will tell you what your potential pathologies will be”. In order to do so, I propose to study the medicines of the person with the objective to prevent the onset of their imbalance,

thus the onset of a pathology. But in order to do so, one needs to know how to recognize the medicines of the person when they are balanced! However, they do not look like themselves when they are imbalanced, i.e. the description given in our Materia Medica.

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THREE PATHWAYS WILL GUIDE US:

First pathway Health = balance/pathology = imbalance (World Health Organization).

We will restore, when possible, our patients’ imbalance with medicines that match them.

Our Materia Medica lists “sick medicines”, thus unbalanced ones. We will apply the principle of similitude on reactional symptoms that our patients develop when faced with their pathology.

As homeopathic physicians we must predict that this good health could be followed by a pathology that corresponds to the individual reaction of the patient. The relevance being to prescribe Sulfur or Lycopodium… in prevention of a potential and predictable imbalance.

Our patients, aside from exceptions, do not suddenly get unbalanced.

In reaction to their pathology, they do not become, from one day to the next, 100 % the Sulfur or Lycopodium of our Materia Medica.

They progressively become their “sick medicine” and, like pieces of a puzzle, they complete each other to become (quite rarely) 100% sick, corresponding to their sensitive type.

Before becoming a “sick” Sulfur or Lycopodium, our balanced patient (we will need to recognize that) will become 10% unbalanced, corresponding to some symptoms found in the Materia Medica.

Then, the unbalanced aggression goes on, and if we do not treat the patient, he will become a “sick” Sulfur or Lycopodium at 20 %, 30 % then 60 % etc., it will correspond to other “deeper” symptoms.

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If we want to predict the pathology, we need to learn to recognize the homeopathic medicines when they are still balanced, and not sick. As Knock said, “every healthy man is a sick man in waiting”.

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Second pathway

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THE SPECIALIST’S

CORNER

Plan the pathological The pathological affection, according to its severity and duration, will induce from the body a superficial reaction if the pathology itself remains superficial, or a deeper and deeper reaction if the pathology has a strong impact on the body or lasts over time.

The patient’s reactional signs are the reflection of the pathology’s progression within the body.

This progression occurs in stages, in deeper and deeper layers, leading to the ranking of symptoms and choice of dilution.

The “deeper” the reaction, the more comprehensive the similitude and thus a better reason to give the medicine in high dilutions.

WHAT ARE THE TELLTALE SYMPTOMS INDICATING THAT THE BALANCED “PATIENT-MEDICINE” IS STARTING TO LOSE ITS EQUILIBRIUM?

WHAT IS THEIR ORDER OF ONSET?

It seemed interesting to try and figure out what first symptoms signal that the balanced medicines start losing their equilibrium. The question one should ask is: what does the symptom the patient presents in front of us mean? What stage of the unbalance state does it point to?

It is important to identify it as a unique reaction of the individual when faced with a physical or psychological aggression. As seen previously, according to its hierarchical importance it will indicate the depth of the individual’s reaction, the depth of the unbalanced state.

And above all, we will have to place it within the imbalance process that should be identified as soon as possible.

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EXAMPLE

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Mister XY has a small and dry eczema lesion with furfuraceous scales “symptomatically” bringing up the prescription of Arsenicum album.

We can either let the patient go home, or if the pathology lingers, look for another medicine of the person that would match the patient; n Mr. XY also presents with sleep disorders characteristic of Arsenicum album.

He is Arsenic at 20 or 30% and fits into the process of the “sick Arsenic” of our Materia Medica. We can anticipate that he is at risk of imbalance by completing the similitude to 60 or 80%.

Arsenicum album is most probably (but not necessarily) his medicine of the person.

We need to prescribe it as treatment but also in prevention; n Mr. XY has no other pathological symptoms of Arsenic but we notice that he dusted the part of our desk in front of him and “realigned” the medical charts he brought with him. These gestures, not pathological in themselves, reveal a particular meticulous nature corroborating a balanced Arsenicum album profile. From there we will know that the small eczema lesion of Mr. XY is the first sign of imbalance that might become complete in 5, 10 or 15 years.

By advising him today to sometimes take a dose of Arsenicum album in 15 or 30 CH in light of disrupting aggressions (for him) (i.e. by giving him Arsenic in anticipation as the medicine of the person), we will allow him to limit the evolution of his pathologies.

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Third pathway

We become what we are meant to be according to who we are.

We are born with our genetic and hereditary luggage and we build ourselves by interacting with the environment around us.

The world influences us via an array of constructive or disruptive elements that make us react, individually, according to who we are (epigenetics).

ONCE THE MEDICINE OF THE LESION IS ADMINISTERED WE WILL HAVE THREE POSSIBILITIES:

n Mr. XY does not present any other pathological symptoms of Arsenicum album in the sense of the “sick medicine” of our Materia Medica.

We are like fish, made to live in water but adapting according to what they are and the quality of the water around them: a shark is not a goldfish and the goldfish leads a different life than the shark.

THE SPECIALIST’S

CORNER

Plan the pathological We do not mean that we are and will remain all our life one unique medicine.”

“

Both will react to the different situations, positive or negative, which they will encounter according to their “state” shark or goldfish.

We experience it in our practice, and it is the same thing for all humans.

And our medicines of the “sick” personsensitive type are archetypes that allow us, through their reactional symptoms, to recognize and identify an unbalanced patient.

Our medicines of the person-sensitive type also have a specific identity when “balanced”.

Balanced or unbalanced, Sulfur is no Lycopodium or Arsenicum album, it is a Sulfur and will react all his life long intrinsically like a Sulfur with its own evolution.

We do not mean that we are and will remain all our life one unique medicine. However, I am certain that we have a princeps medicine that matches our nature: we are goldfish or shark.

It doesn’t mean that we do not need other medicines to restore our balance.

In fact, we always become unbalanced following the pathway of our main medicine of the person that can become “a patchwork” but will however remain the core of our being.

The challenge of the homeopathic physician is to ensure that his patient does not become unbalanced and stays within his medicine.

Thus, among the great polychrests, some are “innate” medicines, from birth.

We are born Sulfur, Lycopodium, Calcarea carbonica, Aurum metallicum, Platina… and, except for major unbalanced states, we will stay this medicine all our life.

Other medicines are “acquired” medicines that will help the innate medicine to restore its balance.

Sometimes they take their place and replace them in an aggravation chain (already very well studied by our elders) like Natrum sulfuricum, Psorinum, Thuya.

There are also “transient” medicines, especially in children like Sulfur iodatum or Calcarea phosphorica, which are there for a time period in the person’s development, then the “innate” medicine will progressively appear and become stronger.

Finally, certain medicines can have a dual role: Silicea and Natrum muriaticum innate or transient?

Causticum, Arsenicum album, Sepia innate or acquired?

The earlier we identify the signs of unbalance in an individual and thus of its “innate” medicine by knowing its state when balanced, the earlier we will be able to prevent, or stop its progression towards aggravation and restore the balance.

Often, as previously seen, the necessary prescription of the “acquired” medicine with the unbalanced “innate” medicine of the person will help the body find again its balanced “innate” medicine of the person.

It is interesting to identify the successive and progressive signs that reveal the “acquired” medicine.

Thuya, is the most obvious example.

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Sometimes we will be able, either spontaneously or thanks to the prescription of the medicine of the person, to restore our balance.

Sometimes we are unable to do so and we slip towards an aggravation of our state.

Our medicine of the person will then start to lose ground to another aggravation, patchwork-like medicine. It will need to be supported by another polychrests medicine to restore a new balance.

It is a change, and the successive, reactional aggravation will draw the progressive course of our medicine of the person.

In some cases, our medicine of the person will be unable to express itself, its reaction possibilities having been drowned by the pathological phenomenon. It will have then become only a memory that the interview alone will be capable of unearthing and it will be replaced, quite definitely by another acquired polychrest medicine, evidence of an almost irreversible aggravation process of our reactional capacities.

We are not the same, aging and chronic disease eradicated our princeps reactivity. Our medicine of the person changed because we have changed. In fact, the goldfish lost its scales and the shark its dorsal fin.

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THE SPECIALIST’S

CORNER

Plan the pathological The important thing in our anticipating prescription is to know where our patient is situated, on which pathway, at which crossroads, on which deviation.

The medical aspect of the problem is influenced by the socioeconomic, environmental aspect…

Like the goldfish and the shark, we do not all have the same life, the same destiny.

Some are intelligent, fighters, others less aware and more passive. Some will die of a disease at 20, others of natural causes at 110…

Some will experience positive influences, others will be subjected to negative situations and each person will assimilate these elements in a specific manner.

EACH MEDICINE OF THE PERSON CORRESPONDS IN AN “ARCHETYPAL” MANNER TO WHO WE ARE, one influencing the other and the other influencing the former in an absolute interaction.

At the core of ourselves we have imbedded the impulse, need, obligation to live. Life forces itself upon us. And our impulse to live, from birth to death, is rooted in our anchored finitude, deep within ourselves, in our genes or somewhere else.

We live because we are mortals. We can live by duty, or without giving it second thoughts, live for desires, looking to blow up the horizon of our own finitude, live “against our own death”…

According to our aspirations, we will be enthusiastic or destroyed by satisfactions or sorrows that the events will trigger. We can be unbalanced or “boosted” by these aggressions according to who we are.

And each person will be unbalanced by these physical or psychological aggressions that will threaten him in his quest for life according to who he is. Money, love, power, worries, disease, time that goes by…

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Our medicines of the person, in their history, describe the need to live and this anxiety of death. Each person, according to his possibilities and capacities, designs his own life trajectory, different from other medicines.

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OUR MEDICINES ARE OUR REFLECTION, OUR AVATAR. They devise our mechanisms, our aspirations, our dreams, our despairs. They are the reflection of our humanity and like ourselves, they do not devise the same destiny. They have their own history. Exactly as we become who we are supposed to be according to who we are, our medicines of the person, in their evolution, also become what they are and what they were supposed to be. Well indicated, they will have

an impact on the physical and psychological evolution of the person.

One of homeopathy’s characteristics is that our medicines of the person follow us all lifelong. They accompany us because they match what we are and thus what we are becoming. They allow us to know where we are going because they pave the way, our way. They are in a sense our mirror and our guiding thread. Why not use them as such?

KNOWING THE “BALANCED PATIENT-MEDICINE”, HOW IT WORKS IN LIFE, ENABLES TO: n FIRSTLY, look what is a motor, important in life for him; n SECONDLY, reveal the potential causes of the imbalance; n THIRDLY, position ourselves in pathological prevention when the person is faced with a disrupting life event for himself. n

MATERIA

MEDICA

Lycopodium My brain and my life 18 cases (age range: 18–29 years) Guy Villano, MD

I

“

f Lycopodium had a liver, it would be Sulfur or Nux vomica!” Lycopodium has a liver but it doesn’t work well and that is the problem! This liver is the energizing and detoxifying power plant of our body, it mainly manages sugar metabolism. It will make Lycopodium what he should be: a person (man or woman) who, because of

this energy problem is easily tired with low physical capacities. Since childhood, he or she has been fully conscious of this fact and knows only to rely on his/her brain to exist in life.

This often hereditary state (we are born Lycopodium from a Lycopodium mother or father) triggers in Lycopodium a fear of not being up to the task, not accomplishing things in life.

And since he knows he cannot be at the top physically, because of his lack of energy, he will be at the top intellectually.

With an intrinsic lack of self-confidence, Lycopodium is afraid of depreciation, being undervalued, and the judgement of others.

The only thing he has in his existence in order to face others, his only weapon is his brain.

This brain, he will use it more than others, rending him even more “intelligent” than others.

Lycopodium will be balanced when dominating his environment, when he will be the manager, the chief recognized by his intelligence. This supremacy could have been in early childhood the source of jealousy, envy,

But Lycopodium, swallows his fears, his tears and his rage and continues to fight on to be the best. He often does so with brio and panache. n TO MAINTAIN HIS STATUS, he will use different strategies, always using his intelligence, which is more astute than in others: • WORK AND KNOWLEDGE “more than others” organization, seriousness, perseverance, will to win, to shine; • MANIPULATION, INTELLECTUAL SEDUCTION, brilliant mind: “ he talked and we listened to him all night: he knows so many things, he is so brilliant”; •PROTECTIVE BOSSINESS (to protect himself) hurtful and contemptuous: “I can’t stand you, you don’t understand a thing, you are a real burden”; • HIS FUNDAMENTAL COWARDICE related to the fear of judgement and opinion of others when he feels inferior to them; • LIE AND DECEIT, by adopting the role that life gave him and adapting his competencies. He can pretend and have others believe that he is in his

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

This deep feeling of inferiority always made him measure himself to others, compare himself to others but on his own territory, the one of the mind, since any other field is out of his league because of fatigability.

taunting, representing many reasons to disrupt a fragile balance that will be hard to sustain over time.

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MATERIA

MEDICA

Lycopodium: My brain and my life right position, sure of himself, which requires huge efforts that will frequently trigger somatic disorders.

Thus, a balanced Lycopodium can be brilliant, charming, uncompromising, lively, arrogant, proud, controversial, skeptical, disdainful, deceitful, patronizing but always touchy and resentful, prone to inner and cold anger, always present and fearsome.

Even though he is masterful at humor (often third degree) any joke directed at him, even a trivial one, will be thoroughly analyzed and taken for a taunt, aggression, challenging his intellectual competencies. n ATTENTION! DANGER! Inside Lycopodium’s head, doubt, self-deprecation and lack of self-confidence are always lurking.

(We are thinking of Silicea who also lacks energy, but is very different in his psyche and pathologies).

Lycopodium wants to be, wants to do but cannot always achieve that.

This liver, always this liver making him a tired individual who will never have the energy of a Nux vomica or an Aurum, yet he could be capable of building lasting successes.

ENDANGERED BY HIS STATUS, by an aggression from someone he deems “superior”, more brilliant, and more intelligent than him, Lycopodium becomes unbalanced.

When he is not doing so well, Lycopodium “shrivels up” and runs: away from responsibilities (even familial ones) and away from the spotlight and as a consequence he stiffens in his character.

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For one who likes to be surrounded and cannot stand to be alone, he withdraws from others, observes them, watches, becomes weary and detaches himself from the world.

He is afraid of others, he considers them potentially dangerous for his existence and it brings back his lack of self-confidence.

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He only comes back to manipulate…only when he still can.

And when he feels he is starting to lose his influence, he crushes the “inferiors” and bows even more to the “superiors” whom he fears.

His attitude makes others weary and he is rejected, this only aggravates his loss of self-confidence and resentment.

n AT THIS STAGE, he can only express with difficulties his anxiety and will show somatic disorders, the physical and psychological decay starts here.

All along his existence, first sporadically, then in a sustainable manner, the defective metabolic functions of Lycopodium trigger skin, lungs and digestive tract disorders as well as the different metabolic pathologies impacting mostly the kidneys and cardiovascular system.

Lycopodium’s body via various eliminations, especially “bowel movements” tries to restore its balance. Yet excretory organs work badly, explaining the “subacute” pathologies of Lycopodium.

WE ARE IN THE MEDIUM PSORA. Thus, there are multiple skin symptoms, which we are aware of, but their expression is less explosive than in Sulfur. In Lycopodium, the skin and other excretory organs offer possibilities for detoxifying the body, a mean to compensate for the poor liver functions.

They also correspond to somatic areas for the psyche of Lycopodium. n THE INTESTINE, this second brain, omnipresent in Lycopodium is a good evaluation parameter for his general state of equilibrium.

IN MY PRACTICE, I noticed that the severity of the digestive disorders of Lycopodium was proportional to the life difficulties encountered: first aggravation of flatulence, then dyspepsia, stomach burns, gastritis then vesicular lithiasis, digestive migraines, finally duodenal ulcer and sometimes colon cancer (Personal Observation).

UROGENITAL PATHOLOGIES will also be the reflection of poor elimination but also of life suffering: lithiasis, essentially uric acid lithiasis, kidney failure, nighttime pollakiuria, prostate inflammation, prostate cancer (Personal Observation).

MATERIA

MEDICA

Lycopodium: My brain and my life ARTERIOSCLEROSIS, the consequence of metabolic disorders (hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia) and the psychological and physical terrain of Lycopodium, will get the better of his arteries, heart and brain.

All major organs are affected.

The degradation of Lycopodium, like much of his life, is closely related to his liver metabolism.

Psychological and physical, brain and “shell” go together.

BUT IS LYCOPODIUM’S BRAIN DIFFERENT? He presents, like everyone else, a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere: on the left “Reason”, on the right “Emotion”.

Lycopodium makes his left brain work hard. Too hard maybe: he is always under control. (Is this why a lot of his “reactional” symptoms are on the right side?). It is his only force to survive.

Paradoxically, this intellectual being, in spite of his control will experience all through life some memory disorders that will progressively get worse and will worry him.

Very early one, this great forgetful, doesn’t remember what he just did or just read. Maybe his great intellectual worries trigger this “zapping”? n PROGRESSIVELY, while talking, he can’t find the right words and uses periphrases and other words to make up for it and compensate.

HE FORGETS PROPER NOUNS When writing, he is confused or forgets letters, uses incorrect words, makes mistakes in the syllables

As time goes on, the intellectual effort becomes harder, the will to be active and to work has

Are these disorders more related to the energetic issues of Lycopodium? His metabolic disorders? His personality?

All these three factors together?

Among my patients presenting with major neurocognitive disorders we find several Lycopodium patients. And knowing this, the “anticipating” prescription of Lycopodium seems very interesting.

HOWEVER, IS LYCOPODIUM ONLY A “TRUE, LEFT-SIDED BRAIN INTELLECTUAL”? DOES HE NOT HAVE A RIGHT BRAIN? Lycopodium, this oversensitive and highly emotional being who cries for a friendly gesture or a compliment is “emotionally disabled”. Furthermore, he feels deep inside this feeling of being incomplete.

However, emotions, which are the opposite of reason, make him vulnerable, he is incapable of dealing with them and puts them aside.

LYCOPODIUM SETS AN EMOTIONAL DISTANCE TO PROTECT HIMSELF. He represses his emotions, and it is only late in life that he will express some emotions. It will often be too late.

The persons who showed him love, affection and devotion at the time of his glory, became tired of not being acknowledged or appreciated. n LYCOPODIUM NEEDS LOVE, but doesn’t receive any back and doesn’t give any because he doesn’t know how, because he is weary but also because he lacks self-confidence and doesn’t trust the other person. He needs to control everything by reason.

He wants to be loved, but doesn’t know how to answer that love: “I don’t know how to tell her I love her, yet Doctor, I do love her”.

All through his life, Lycopodium needs a close presence, one that he can influence, rush, and manipulate.

He cannot recognize how that person completes him, but her absence triggers a great anxiety, and panic.

REGARDING THE WAY HE MANAGES HIS BODY, LYCOPODIUM WORKS HARD he exercises by reason, sleeps because one has too, his sleep is often agitated with snores and nighttime snacking.

His lack of interest for food – “I can’t have a big meal, and I

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He can be great at mathematics, yet paradoxically is quite poor at arithmetic. His stingy side will remind him to not forget his “accounts payable”.

His planning and calculating side will make him the “man with the files” consciously kept up and where he noted down everything: it can be useful!

dulled off and his cognitive functions inexorably decrease.

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MATERIA

MEDICA

Lycopodium: My brain and my life waste my time eating” – means that he eats because one has too, but not by pleasure. If he eats a little, he will generally eat “well”, “organic” because one should. This might, just like Sulfur, entice him to get close to nature, but rather because it is the right thing to do than because he wants to save the planet, paradoxically this will make him an effective emotional activist, rather than a utopic one.

Because he doesn’t eat much and is quickly satiated, on top of a quickly-overloaded hepatic system and can’t do its job properly, Lycopodium is bloated, constipated (hard plug followed by pasty stools).

As seen before, Lycopodium’s prostate is often hypertrophied. Whether it is related to the former or not, he has a low sexual drive, without pleasure during sex, which he considers more like a duty, promptly executed, without any emotional attachment and with an almost complete intellectual control.

Premature ejaculation, anorgasmia are common in an unbalanced Lycopodium.

In women, burning vaginal dryness, painful right ovary or cystic ovary (complaint from the left brain?), bladder ptosis along with a uterus that has not been used much (we understand) will precede an early menopause.

Sexual satisfaction is very hard to reach for Lycopodium: “Lycopodium is scared to lose himself in the sexual act and in a sexual relationship with another person.” (Dr. Barbancey)

AS TIME GOES BY, THE POORLY FUNCTIONING LIVER CONTINUES TO IMPACT LYCOPODIUM

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Lycopodium is lucid and is in a permanent state of selfassessment, he sees himself age and can feel his brain aging as well.

His memory disorders (maybe unconsciously the ultimate protection?) get worse, creating anxiety and making him depressed.

20

So Lycopodium continues, at all costs, by dire necessity, to engage in intellectual activities in order to slow-down his degradation to prevent depression and senility, which represents his biggest fear.

However the organic arterial damages are there.

Old age, which occurs early on for Lycopodium, renders him melancholic, he withdraws and becomes a loner.

He retreats from a society “that didn’t do anything to understand him”.

He refused the love given to him.

This misanthropic individual according to Dr. Joly, hidden

from all, is unhappy with his life, disappointed and bitter: “I ruined everything, nobody loves me anymore!”

The left brain is wasting away, the right brain takes over, but it is too late.

Lycopodium will brood over his failures, thinking he ruined everything and was not up “to the challenge”, which has been his deepest fear his entire life.

Alone, forgotten and forgetful, thin and bald, his bloated abdomen prevents him from seeing his meager stream of urine, which he has a hard time to evacuate due to a pathological prostate.

Dazed, diminished, not knowing what is happening to him, Lycopodium suffers the burden of his terrible decay. n HOMEOPATHIC THERAPEUTIC can prevent, anticipate and thus delay, or even cancel this sad evolution.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES FOR AN UNBALANCED LYCOPODIUM? • The relentless and slow degradation of his body related to a defective liver function.

• The full awareness of this physical but mostly psychological decay that haunts him throughout his life.

• Confrontation with a “superior” intelligence that he perceives as being a danger.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE ONSET OF SYMPTOMS UNVEILING THE UNBALANCE OF LYCOPODIUM AND THEIR RANKING ORDER.

1. PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS BALANCE Three symptoms are the markers of Lycopodium and, because they are not pathological are present even when balanced: • abdominal bloating; • quickly satiated hunger with sensation of gastric plenitude right from the first bites; • craving for sugar and eating at set times.

They escort the unbalance of Lycopodium, yet all the while they are only getting worse.

MATERIA

MEDICA

Lycopodium: My brain and my life ONSET OF THE UNBALANCE Atopic dermatitis in newborns, with its pruritus and bleeding improved by freshness, marks early on the “liver” dysfunction.

Sporadic cyclic vomiting can also quickly confirm this hepatic dysfunction.

Then progressively the other digestive symptoms appear, rhythmed by the hepatic clock 4 – 8 pm: constipation first, then dyspepsia, flatulence, gallbladder pain, digestive migraines.

Simultaneously, ENT symptoms start getting in place, especially the “digestive” chronic nasal obstruction, particularly at night.

SETTLED UNBALANCED Skin lesions, which were sporadic at the beginning of the unbalanced state and that might have alternated with lung disorders especially asthma, become sustainable and progressively chronic: eczema, rash…

A duodenal ulcer will underline a great unbalance and should be interpreted as the somatization of a disrupted psychological state.

The existing metabolic disorders (hyperuricemia, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia) will result in: • renal pathologies: lithiasis, chronic kidney disease…; • cardiovascular diseases: high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis…; •and, associated to severe cognitive disorders in light of the specific psyche of Lycopodium.

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS Anxiety, lack of self-confidence as well as the constant intellectual challenge implemented by Lycopodium in order to be the best and be compelling are all reasons for the pathologies he often develops: besides the duodenal ulcer, early-onset prostate cancer and colon cancer. (This observation is a personal one based on the cases studied.)

Melancholy and maybe major neurocognitive disorders are only the finality of the peculiar psychological mechanism of Lycopodium.

This presentation of Lycopodium is the first of balanced medicines. The other polychrests will be presented in the next issues. n

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

21

THE QUIZ

QUESTIONS 45 ON ARTICLES OF THE MAGAZINE NUMBER

It is important to regularly review the Materia Medica, the characteristic symptoms of each medicine and their precise indications.

These questions concern the issue 45 of the CEDH magazine.

1. LIST 2 MEDICINES FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ECZEMA PHASES: n n n n

A B C D

The Erythematous phase The vesicular phase The oozing phase The healing phase = peeling phase­­

2. IN DERMATOLOGY AND PSYCHE, THE ME-SKIN, DR. POMEY-REY INSISTS IN HIS CLINICAL PRACTICE ON TWO POINTS, WHICH ARE THEY? n n n n n

A B C D E

Similitude Etiology Patients’ profile Infinitesimal Chronic Reactional Mode

3. SENTINEL MEDICINES ARE: n A n B n C

6. IT IS IMPORTANT TO COMPARE NATRUM MURIATICUM TO OTHER MEDICINES, WHICH ARE THEY? n A Phosphorus n D Silicea n B Lycopodium clavatum n E Arsenicum album n C Platina n F Sepia officinalis 7. WHAT MNEMONIC WORDS ARE ESSENTIAL TO RECALL NATRUM MURIATICUM? n n n n n

A B C D E

Depression Sugar Extrovert Sun Sea

n n n n n

F G H I J

Salt Body Dysmorphic Disorder Silent wall Dehydration Talkative

8. IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY, IN ORDER FOR HOMEOPATHY TO BE RECOGNIZED, WHICH WERE THE TWO ACTORS THAT HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE?

Symptomatic medicines CRM medicines ST medicines

n A n B n C

Authorities Patients Physicians

n D n E n F

Church Army Hospital

4. WHAT IS THE NEW ELEMENT IN THE FRAMEWORKS AND PROTOCOLS BOOK? n n n n

A B C C

New frameworks and protocols Its price Its toolbox Its enclosed digital version

DECEMBERE 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

5. WHAT ARE THE 5 KEYWORDS RELATED TO NATRUM MURIATICUM?

22

n n n n

A B C D

Tired Allergy Inflammation Skin

‘

n n n n

E F G H

Answers p. 35

Mucous membranes Withdrawal Tiresome Not very cold sensitive

9. ACCORDING TO THE COUNTRIES, THE POSITIONS OF KEY INFLUENCERS WERE MORE OR LESS NEUTRAL, OPPOSED OR FAVORABLE. IN WHICH COUNTRIES WAS THE ENVIRONMENT THE MOST FAVORABLE (OR THE LESS OPPOSED) FOR HOMEOPATHY AT THAT TIME? n A n B n C

Papal states France Kingdom of Prussia

n D n E

Hungary Austria

10. AT THAT TIME AND IN THIS CONTEXT, HOW DID THE HOMEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS REACT? n A They support non-homeopathic physicians n B They criticize non-homeopathic physicians n C They underline the faults in the practice of certain famous physician n D They work on valorizing their own medical experiences

HISTORY & CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien

The patients

(part 3)

Jean-François Becker, MD Franck Choffrut, MD

T

he work of Samuel Hahnemann, just like those of his students, did in fact contribute in part to the expansion of this new medical doctrine. However, in order for homeopathy to be truly recognized, it needed to be clinically proven. In fact, patients

who demanded to be treated differently enable the definite implementation of homeopathy. Who were these patients? Some answers are given in Clinical Homeopathy.

1

Very detailed observations and a very relative anonymity As seen in the previous article, the observations collected in the Clinical Homeopathy fall under two categories:

• GENERAL: pathology in one or two unidentified patients; • SPECIFIC: pathology in one or several identified patients.

If some observations relate the evolution of a pathology in one identified patient, others bring up recurrent or intercurrent pathologies in a single patient and other ones, finally the same pathology is described in different identified patients. As such, if the specific observations represent almost 90% of the total, they concerned a greater proportion of clinical cases.

AT THIS TIME, ANONYMITY, was a haphazard notion shared by all physicians from the first part of the 19th century in Europe, and disclosing the patient’s identity seemed quite the norm.

Homeopathic and non-homeopathic physicians frequently mentioned in their observations the full name and profession of their patient

Observations collected in The Clinical Homeopathy are quite similar, in their form, of the Observation Journals written

by Hahnemann at the same time (1833-1835).

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They more or less follow the same pattern: a presentation of the patient (marital status and physical aspect), then the reason for consulting, the symptoms with varying degree of details, the treatment implemented and evolution of the disease. It is a manner quite similar to the one used by Hahnemann in his Patients’ diaries [1], especially between 1833 and 1835. Rather similar but not completely identical: Hahnemann did not intend to publish

these diaries and was more concerned about the description of his patients’ symptoms and treatments than their constitution, sex or physical aspect.

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HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients (for example, Pinel in [2], p. 24 and p. 46). Once again and for the same reasons, contrarily to Hahnemann, the presentation of the patient in the Clinical Homeopathy does not, in a general manner, respect one’s anonymity.

Regarding the address, the homeopathic physicians were a little bit more vocal (or less discreet?) than their nonhomeopathic colleagues. This attitude was mostly abided by allopathic French-speaking physicians. As an example, the Wallonia physician Malaise was quite the caricature.

However, he must have noticed it since he deemed necessary to justify himself: “All through this book, I only reported the story of diseases and only quoted the names of persons who gave me prior approval 1.“ Shall we see in this their need to evidence the proof of efficacy of their therapeutic? Surely. Listing only one example: “On May 15, 1834, I was called to care for Maximilien Zespère, 20 years old, living at rue Vivienne, no 4.

This young man has a good constitution, with chestnut hair, fair skin, tall with strong limbs. In 1832, he followed the antiphlogistic regimen with mercurial salts to destroy a severe gonorrhea followed by orchitis. After three weeks of treatment, the healing seemed quite established: but there remains an induration of the epididymis still observed today. (...) For the past eight day, major swelling of the testicles, pressure on the genitals, impossibility to walk, move and do any type of effort 2.“ We gather that the descendants of M. Zespere were delighted to learn that their ancestor was cured by two doses of Sulfur and that the entire homeopathic community at the time could visit the patient directly at his address to ensure that he could now move easily, even if the floor number was missing…

2 DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

A picture of daily life in Europe at the beginning of the 19th century

24

Beyond these data on the profession or social status of the patients, it is an entire ensemble of personalities, or even characters who emerge along these observations to create a rather befitting image of society and daily life of European people at that time: The gossiping women who rush to the bedside of a mother who just lost her child 3, The Saxon bust-up craftsman (he mixed thatch and earth to build walls) who, in spite of a frail constitution, played the flute in city hall dances 4, battles between workmen in Lyon 5 Vinegar street vendor with his wheelbarrow (illustration by Mailleron)

Patients of the Clinical Homeopathy: a faithful representation of society and daily life at the beginning

the essential and traditional Neapolitan wife 6, the alcoholic policeman from Lyon “this happens too frequently in his line of work” and who, “since an arrest where he was beaten, stumped on and where people danced on his abdomen 7», became affected by tuberculosis. We are actually offered a glimpse of a puppet show from those times…

But we can also see in the background the more painful events that bloodied Europe. Sequelae scarred the body and mind of soldiers involved in Napoleon’s wars: “Lieutenant W of H, forty-two years old, with a strong constitution and a bright nature, had in his childhood scarlet fever, followed by a tendency to depression. (...) Later on his health got stronger; in 1813, he went to war and got typhus, and during the entire war was affected by chronic diarrhea, which was very tiring. In 1814, he caught scabies that reappeared the year after and was treated for a long time by rubbing ointments with sulphur and mercury. After the war, he experienced recurrent catarrh and was plagued by several severe affections and misfortunes 8” This required a six-month treatment with Phosphorus and Sulfur to cure him.

But there was also the little Polish man from Lublin who developed rickets due to

HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients

of the 19th century: (from right to left) a peasant in the valley of Couserans, a street vendor of door mats and a detail of a painting by the romantic German painter Adrian Ludwig Richter (1803-1884).

having wandered in the cold after escaping from the Russian army with his parents . And the accident that occurred in 1833, during army manoeuvers in Vienna where “the wife in charge of tending to the dressings of the wounded” contracted tetanus 10 or the misfortune of the Roman engraver who suffered seizures after having been beaten and bound, by mistake, by the henchmen of Pope Gregory XVI 11.

This absence of anonymity led us to unveil interesting data: patients were mostly women (51.5%) than men (48.5%). This repartition between sexes is almost identical to Hahnemann’s in Köthen. Even if the latter is difficult to establish since Hahnemann only unveiled the sex of his patients in four cases out of five. Furthermore, regarding Clinical Homeopathy, when it is noted (in 70% of cases), the age led to a more precise demographics of patients treated with homeopathy (table 1).

The strongest representation of a young population seems in accordance with the European population at that time.

Similarly, the meager proportion of patients above the age of 45; is a reflection that at the time life expectancy, especially in lower, poor classes, did not go over this fateful age [3]. The oldest patient of all, “A., an elder man of about 90 14”, was treated by Gross for bladder paralysis.

He probably had sufficient means to call him. Cicuta virosa cured him in two weeks.

In contrast, the under representation of very young patients can be explained by two factors: child mortality before the age of 1 which, at the time, was around 20% of live births, but also, due to the fact that families (essentially rural or poor urban families) did not really

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

We also find elements that indicated the poor condition of European Jews before their emancipation. Ordinary racism is expressed here by little touches. Just like physicians who indicate that such and such patient is born from parents affected with this and this specific constitution.

Bigel reports that “A 10-month-old child, born from Jewish parents, in good health, contracted three months after birth tinea capitis 12” and was cured after about 3 months of treatment with Arsenicum, Sulfur, Calcarea, Baryta and Rhus tox.

Finally, Etienne Pummer, a Hungarian peasant with delirium “sometimes spoke Hebrew, even though nothing could have indicated that he knew the language; he thought that his house was surrounded by cars full of Jews and geese that showed him their behinds, shrieked and wanted to kill him13” A dose of Stramonium restored his sanity.

3

Age of patients

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HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients

4 At the beginning of the 19th century soldiers suffer from physical and psychological sequelae from Napoleon's wars.

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

have the financial means or will to treat young children, even more so when the child was not able to assume his part of the work. The youngest child treated by Bethmann for asthma: “F.K., an eight-week child, who had been sleeping in a small confined and overheated room since birth and was still in a very hot bed has been affected in the first days of life by purpura, (…) To purpura was associated on the 6th day a short and whistling cough 15”After having imposed on his parents to lower the temperature of the room to 23 to 25 degrees on the Reaumur scale 16 and administered Aconit and Pulsatilla, the breathing of the young patient (who, obviously, belonged to a family rich enough to overheat his room…) went back to normal after 4 days.

Let’s note that patients under the age of 15 only represented 16% of the total number of Hahnemann’s patients [1].

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Age / Sex

Male

Female

› 60

4%

3%

45–60

12%

12%

30–45

19%

21%

15–30

34%

39%

1–15

28%

23%

‹1

5%

1%

Table 1: repartition according to age and sex (percentages were rounded up to the upper number)

Social status If one considers the profession of the head of the household and the rare professions accessible to women at the time, the middle-classes and lower-classes are the most represented. Not only because they would have been more sensitive to the new therapeutic method, but mostly because they represented the great majority of the European population (table 2).

The study of the Patients’ diaries, because Hahnemann rarely indicated the patient’s profession (only in 30 % of cases), only led to a coarse repartition of social categories [1]. For this reason, the comparison between Hahnemann’s patients and Clinical homeopathy is only an indication. The most serious biographs agree that when Hahnemann lived in today’s modern Germany, he had to move around quite often to find enough patients to ensure the well-being of his large family. It is only in Köthen (1821–1835) that he finally reached some material comfort [4, 5].

However, if we notice a few similitudes (high proportion of craftsmen), differences are based on two factors: the reputation of Hahnemann and the specific population in the area where any physician sets his practice. In protestant countries, the population is more literate as noted by Monika Papsch, “there was a literature with advice for religious figures on medical and pastoral questions” (in [1], p. 30), “an example of these leaflets is the Medicina clerica from the

Middle and lower classes are the most represented and especially craftsmen: here a man working with a pommel to make felt.

HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients physician E.J.G. de Valenti (1831) dedicated to ministers” (in [1], p. 31 n. 130). Franz studied theology before turning to medicine and homeopathy after he was cured by this new method. We find in a German study, another explanation to the high rate of ministers in Hahnemann’ Saxon patients’ population. It shows that among homeopathic physicians in those times, almost 40% were sons of ministers (including Gross, Müller and Stapf 18), i.e; three times more than physicians’ sons.

Regarding the high percentage of aristocrats, it is mostly due to Hahnemann’s reputation. “An aristocrat, made famous by his military and civil acts, the Marquess of Anglesey, agreed to have me mention the advances made towards his cure. This distinguished man had been suffering for the past 16 years from a painful tic: this disease started four years after he lost his leg at Waterloo: all the most famous physicians exhausted their resources. Even though I have the great honor of being the physician to his Excellency, Hahnemann himself is leading the treatment 19”. For his patient, Henry Henry William Paget, count of Uxbridge, first Marquess of Anglesey; Harris Dunsford had the grace to attribute the merit of his cure to the daily take of Hepar sulphur 2/30, then Thuya, Arsenic, Sabadilla, Sulphur and “other medicines according to the accidental symptoms, as intermediary remedies”. But he also had the grace not to draw attention to the fame of the Marquess: the scandal triggered by the kidnapping of Lady Charlotte, the wife of his younger brother…

Regarding Hahnemann, it is when he arrived in Paris (1835) that he ended up mostly treating famous people since Melanie, his second wife was acquainted with what we would now call the Rich and Famous of those times,.

A SOCIETY MADE UP MOSTLY OF LOWER CLASSES

Clinical Homeopathy

Hahnemann

Craftsman Craftsman (barber, mason, brewer, carpenter, seamstress, steam bath owner, engraver, miller, fisherman, tailor, tanner)

17 %

Peasant, shepherd, cowman

15 %

Soldier (canteen keeper)

13 %

Laborer (miner, ironer)

11 %

Servant (3/4 of them are women: cooks, nannies, washers)

10%

Employee (administrator, huntsman, accountant, government employee, forestry worker, messenger)

7.5 %

Slaves

0.1 %

Care attendant

0.1 %

Prostitute

0.1 %

Physician

5%

Shopkeeper (traveling salesman)

4%

10 %

Religious figure

3.3 %

7%

Teacher (professor, primary school teacher)

3.2 %

Upper class (lawyer, cavaliere, banker, council man, “lady-in-waiting”, diplomat, governor, industrial, legal consult, mayor, clerk, land owner, annuitant)

17 %

5%

2%

6%

Noble

1.8 %

13 %

Artist (actor, singer, composer, dancer, theater owner, writer, musician, painter; a third were women singers or dancers)

1.8 %

Student

1.7 %

High-ranking military

0.7 %

Scholar (mechanic, philosopher, theologian, literary man)

0.3 %

Pharmacist

0.3 %

Midwife

0.25%

Surgeon

0.2%

Table 2: repartition according to the social status (percentages were rounded up) of patients listed in Clinical Homeopathy (1816–1838) and in Hahnemann’s writings (1833–1835)

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

To get back to the repartition of patients listed in the Clinical Homeopathy, some interesting elements can be highlighted. Society at the beginning of the 19th century was mainly rural, yet this fact does not clearly transpire in the writings and can be explained by two factors. The first one is the same that explains the low rate of young children: economy. “Miss Roth, 18 years old, darkhaired, frail, experienced at the end of the summer

Social status

27

HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients The large portion of noblemen and noblewomen among patients is mostly due to the reputation of Hahnemann.

He treated and cured several famous nobles including Henry William Page, count of Uxbridge, first marquess of Anglesey (adjacent picture)

severe lassitude and weakness. (...) She had been suffering like that for about ten days and her pain was constantly increasing when they called me 20.” Rau, who was called late, had to use 8 different medicines to cure her.

Regarding the second, there are other reasons, besides economic ones, much more sordid to explain the delay in calling a physician: “On October 16, 1834, I was asked to visit Louis B, 36 years old and asthmatic. No one was expecting anything from my care, since the patient was on his deathbed, there was nothing left to do; however it was more suitable for the family that a physician be present when the patient died 21.” Clayvaz cured him in less than 2 months.

THE HIGH RATE OF SOLDIERS

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

(essentially French and Neapolitan, but also German), from a lower social class explained by the liberation wars (following the battles of Nations, Greece, Serbia) or annexation wars (Poland, Algeria) that plagued the first half of the 19th century. Schréter had to use Nux vomica 2/30, Pulsatilla. 1/15, Sepia 1/30, Chamomilla. 1/9 and tr. sulphur to cure “L. de K.” from the abuse of mercury in an attempt to cure a syphilitic exanthema contracted during military service at the age of 16 22.

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THE BLUE COLLAR WORKERS, as we call them nowadays, were not important actors of the urban Society. In the Clinical homeopathy, they were more helpers in a craftsman shop than industry workers.

If, during the beginning of that century the industrialization of the United-Kingdom was already well-advanced, it remained at the embryonic state on the rest of the continent [6].

Precisions on the social status of patients also underlined either the elegance of the physician who refused to have paupers and destitute individuals (most often poor women, due to early widowhood), or highlighted the

slightest cost of his therapeutic: Doctor B. is asked by “Christine Müller, 26 years old, with a strong and sturdy constitution, to not prescribe too many medicines because she is poor. Thus, I decided to use a homeopathic treatment 23.”

Treatment by Belladonna, Saccharum lactis and marshmallow ointments (the two last ones required by the patient), which solved her puerperal peritoneum and uterine infection in 4 days.

We hope physicians were not cynic but rather pragmatic to rejoice from the fact that poverty allowed patients to stick to the homeopathic diet required by Hahnemann (we will explore this further in a future article). Kretzschmar, as a good student of Hahnemann, was reassured.

Since there “was nothing to change to the diet; poverty did not allow for eating harmful foods 24,” the treatment was quickly successful. In fact one dose of Graphites got rid in nine days of an erysipelas that had appeared in the past 36 hours.

HOMEOPATHY, AN ADEQUATE THERAPEUTIC METHOD TO THE TRUE NATURE OF THOSE ROMANTIC TIMES During the Romantic period, following Napoleon’s destructions and territorial reorganizations, occupations and annexations decided by the Vienna congress, nations were advocating a return to their national identity. As noticed by Hahnemann , the identity of people or nations become a major issue. Let us just bring up some obvious examples of this European movement: the creation of the Belgium Kingdom, Spanish and Portuguese liberal revolutions, the Greek and Serbian independence wars, the revolution against the annexation of Poland or in a few Italian territories, the renewed nationalism in Hungary. In these battles mostly the upper class and lower classes were involved: Karagiorgos who started the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire was a peasant.

However artists, in the larger sense of the term, also greatly participated to this movement: Byron and Delacroix revolted by the Greek massacres, Chopin and his famous Study in C minor so called “revolutionary” because it was composed during the fall of Warsaw, poems

HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients from Petöfi, Leopardi or Manzoni or even some Italian or German operas, again only to list a few examples.

Society of Paris and Curie the W. Thus, it was quite logical for patients of French physicians to be mostly bourgeois.

However, the Romantic Period was also the time to return to a personal identity (one can bring up the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich or Schubert’s Lieder composed on the Winterreise of Wilhelm Müller). And it is easy to understand why the artistic communities, and more broadly the people, were attracted to therapeutic method dedicated to treating the individual, and why they were at the forefront of the patients cited in the Clinical Homeopathy.

ARTISTS being treated with homeopathy were essentially Italian, German and French. If Paganini asked Hahnemann for help, the French painter and landscaper Jules André went all the way to Liège to see Dr. Malaise for gastric disorders that had been troubling him for the past 8 years.

A treatment by white bryonia, nux, pulsatilla and sulfur cured him from this affliction in twenty days 27. He was not the only artist saved by homeopathy. One among many was the Neapolitan Don Gabriele Smargiassi. “Young robust man, with a bright mind, landscape painter, driven by a desire for glory [who] was about to leave for Rome (...) had violent colic attacks and gastric fever” two days before his departure. Romani rushed to his side and administered Ignatia. “On Monday I came to his house early. He was gone since dawn. The pain had receded after taking the remedy, the fever broke during the night, and the patient arrived in Rome with no incidents, as I learned later on 28”. He became a famous Neapolitan painter and died in his hometown at the age of 85.

In France, as seen in the previous article, the implementation of homeopathy was mainly due to immigrant revolutionary physicians who, just like Des Guidi, fled the new regimes. It really is not surprising that after July 1830 in France, under the bourgeois Monarchy of Louis-Philippe the First, the progressive and utopist bourgeois were the first to adopt homeopathy.

Young physicians along with students of the Polytechnic School, often belonged to the SaintSimonian Community [5]. Léon Simon (1798–1867) was not only a homeopath, but also between 1831 and 1832, the chief cook of the SaintSimonian Community of Ménilmontant. Paul Curie (1799–1853) was an active Saint-Simonian in Alsace 26. Simon created the Homeopathic

François Sabatier brought, in a synthetic manner, an explanation to the appearance of “artists” in the observations of the Clinical Homeopathy: “A new era, which with the advent of bourgeoisie, will promote individual businesses. It will be then essential to show one’s identity, brand or even superiority (the 19th century consecrated the great virtuoso artists and promised them a fame that

In this romantic period and awakening of national identities (left: "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich) and Chopin, below, with his study in C minor, so called revolutionnary), several artists turn to homeopathy.

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

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HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients

After 1830, the progressive and utopic circles like the Saint-Simoniens (which often included young physicians) welcome homeopathy with enthusiasm.

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

would go beyond any of the great singers of the 18th century)” (in [7], p. 102). Musicians, singers, and to a certain extent, painters, writers and poets were no longer employed by kings or noble families but became famous personalities of the bourgeois society.

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We better understand why homeopathic physicians liked to underline that among their patients they not only had artists, but more broadly, esthetes. “A frail young man had twice in the past year delirium attacks, agitation combined with suffocations, etc. and this due to his way of life. (...) In intervals of being half-sane, he remembered the dreams he had during the attack, but he could not remember what he did or said during the lucid periods that preceded. He could not rest; dreams came and scared him, even when his eyes were open. He saw all kinds of imaginary beings that appeared as dogs or terrible animals, as seen in the Freischütz (Robin Hood), a play that he saw previously and that scared him greatly 29.” A dose of stramonium. 3 cured him in three hours. However, Diehl – in regards to his young patient, probably was not a great opera fan or had a selective or interpretative memory, since the Freischütz (literally “the straight shooter”) composed by Weber, the first romantic German opera, was a success right after its first representation in Berlin in 1821. However, it did not feature frightful animals nor dogs, but rather in the second part of Act II, an amazing scene at Wolf's Glen with seven magic bullets, and selling one’s soul to the devil.

Similarly, other physicians, living in less bourgeois monarchies, shed some light on the social status of their patients to show that the new doctrine was

adopted by the upper classes or intellectuals.

As underlined in our previous article, homeopathy did not develop equally in all countries. In Naples, in occupied Poland and in several regions of the German territory, first high-ranking militaries (often occupants or their friends) and upper classes adopted this new therapeutic. Consequently, it is not surprising that we find many Barons, Counts, Princes, Lords and other “ladies-inwaiting” in the observations of Neapolitans, German homeopaths or the ones by Bigel who practiced in Poland.

In the same manner, De Pleyel, who set his practice at the frontier between Austria-Hungary and Ottoman territories, cared for high upper-class Turks: “The wife of the Turk lord Hassan Bey, who lived in Svillay on the Save, twenty-one years old, with a frail and irritable constitution, had the misfortune of being affected with metrorrhagia and miscarriages at the slightest emotion 30”. Four doses of upscaling dilutions of Sabina administered over a six-month period allowed her to finally become a mother…

We also find a few Belgian barons and countesses, however Liege’s climate seems to be more detrimental to university professors and their families. Professors are statistically more frequent in the observations reported by Malaise than in any of his European colleagues. Especially “Monsieur Guillery, distinguished scholar and

HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients chemistry professor at the University of Brussels 31” who, when visiting Liege, consented to being treated by homeopathy. Delighted by the success of the treatment of his dysentery by camomille (Malaise often wrote in French the names of the homeopathic medicines) and Hydrargyrum sublimatum. Consequently the distinguished professor entrusted his daughter and mother-inlaw to the expert hands of the homeopathic physician from Liege.

THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY

Several artists like here Paganini ask to be treated with homeopathy.

5

First testimonial of Veterinary medicine

One last anecdotal similarity with Hahnemann (in [1], p. 54): the presence, among the patients, of an animal. A cow from Saône-et-Loire who became afraid of water after having been bitten by a rabid dog and treated by homeopathy by Laville de Laplaigne. Unfortunately, in spite of belladonna. 1/12 then 1/30, the cow died .

In a future article, we will come back to human patients and look at their reasons for consulting. n

REFERENCES Hahnemann S., Krankenjournal D 38 (1833–1835), Kommentarband zur Transkription von Monika Papsch, Stuttgart, Haug, 2007 ; trad. F.C. [2 ] Adelon, Beclard, Biett, Dictionnaire de médecine, Paris, Bechet jeune, 1821–1828 (BIUM).

[3] www.ined.fr [4] Jütte R., Samuel Hahnemann, Begründer der Homöopathie, DTV, 2005.

[5] Dinges M., Weltgeschichte der Homöopathie, München, C.H. Beck, 1996.

[6] Roberts J.M., Westad O.A., Histoire du monde, du Moyen Âge aux Temps modernes, Perrin, 2016.

[7] Sabatier F., Miroirs de la musique, tome II, Fayard, 1995.

[1]

NOTES 1

obs. Cephalalgia, 183.

2 obs. Syphilis (Orchitis and gonorrhea), 3676, Bonnaire.

3 obs. Typhoid fever, 1705, Rau.

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

Among healthcare professionals, in the larger meaning of the term, we find several physicians who related their own treatment or the one they used on their closed ones. They are very interesting because they represent a higher degree in the will to evidence the efficacy of this new doctrine. To give only one example, let’s talk about Aegidi relating his treatment by Hahnemann: “During the fall of 1820, I had the misfortune, during a trip to fall and I sustained a severe bruise in my left shoulder. (...) The application of leeches and antiphlogistic agents made the most severe symptoms disappear in a few days, I still experienced a paralyzing heaviness in the right arm preventing me from using it. (...) On May 14; 1822 according to Rust’s prescription I had a craftsman make with two white-hot irons, three cautery instruments, 4 inches long placed around the shoulder joint and at a reasonable distance from one another. In order to later form a fontanel, we pushed the triangular iron even deeper. (...) The most effective allopathic medicines did not bring any improvement so I used a few homeopathic remedies (sic) that seemed most appropriate but did not yield results. (...) At the beginning of the year 1823 I wrote to Samuel Hahnemann, to get some advice on my disease. He replied with some elements, among them: “Think about the rules of the old medicine with the treatment by fontanels, drains and finally cauterization followed by suppuration, what should have been the expected results? (...) How crazy these material theories are and how many poor unfortunates had these treatments! I will shed a light into these dark ages. Your disease is older than you thought. You must have been in contact with someone who had scabies or were exposed to ringworms as a child” (...)

Regarding the latter, I was never affected, however I was struck by the former supposition when I remembered a past event that I had almost forgotten. I never had psora, but a long time ago as an assistant at the Charité Hospital in Berlin in 1815, I had opened a furuncle in a young girl who was lying with patients affected by scabies, and I cut myself with a blade (sic) on the middle finger of the right hand. (...) After having read Hahnemann’s letter, I saw a completely new aspect of the nature of my affliction, and in all confidence I started taking the 9 powders he had sent me that I needed to take over a 50-day period 32.”

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HISTORY

& CULTURE

The Clinical Homeopathy of Dr Beauvais de Saint-Gratien: the patients 4

20

5

21

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

obs. Phtisie, 2983, Ruckert.ty obs. Wounds, 9/119, Perrussel.

6 obs. Spasm, 644, de Horatiis.

7 obs. Phtisie, 3014, Laurencet.

8 obs. Chronic Enteropathy, 1129, Fielitz.

9 obs. Rickets, 3312, Bigel.

10 obs. Mental alienation, 50, Neumann.

11 obs. Seizures, 1206, Liuzzi.

12 obs. Scrofula, 3570.

13 obs. Mental alienation, 30, Schellhammer.

14 obs. Bladder paralysis, 2861.

15 obs. Asthma, 264.

16 At the time the Reaumur scale is still widely used.

Degrees are approximately equivalent to the Celsius scale 17 See p29 to 33 in no 45 of the CEDH magazine.

18 See p25 to 32 in no 44 the CEDH magazine.

19 obs. Facial neuralgia, 2502.

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obs. Typhoid fever, 1701. obs. Asthma, 275.

22 obs. Mercury (abuse of), 2335.

23 obs. puerperal peritoneum and uterine infection, 2366.

24 obs. Erysipelas, 464.

25 See p29 to 33 in no 45 of The CEDH Magazine.

26 We would like to thank our friend Alain Bergeron for having brought our attention to this aspect of Dr. Curie’s patients.

27 obs. Gastropathy, 9/530.

28 obs. Gastric fever, 1411.

29 obs. Mental alienation, 40, Diehl.

30 obs. Miscarriage, 281, De Pleyel.

31 obs. Dysentery, 9/371.

32 obs. Omarthrocace, 2608.

33 obs. Hydrophobia, 2138.

TRIBUTE

In memoriam

Michel Guermonprez Didier Deswarte, MD

D

octor Michel Guermonprez left us on Friday, April 28, 2017, after a short hospitalization. His funeral took place on May 3 in Battrans in Haute Saône (France).

In spite of battling the disease these past two years and his treatment, he got better and retained all his bright intellectual faculties that he was famous for.

This is a sad day in the history of Homeopathy.

For many us who did not experience World War II, we would like to recognize the authenticity of courageous acts in singular circumstances, Michel Guermonprez was a war hero and was awarded the French “croix de guerre”. Before becoming a homeopathic physician he already showed the strength of his personality. Anyone who met him as a patient or student or even friend was completely aware of that.

Our Northern region benefited from this incredible personality, and many physicians were drawn to our great homeopathy practice thanks to him. He had a university culture, associated with an aesthetic sense, in the way he spoke and his choice of words. A man of science, he knew how to show us that knowledge is not acquired, it is built up and can be destroyed, he would quote Karl Popper for whom the scientific approach finds truth in contradiction.

Like many of his old friends, he was interested in Acupuncture and knew it well, the Chinese traditions were shared at the time with Dr. Jean Choain in Lille, who was a great sinologist, Dr. Le Prestre also… His encyclopedic knowledge was the landmark of a curious mind, and he always said that at some point one had to make a choice,

"He knew how to present his observations with illustrations but without ever losing the objectivity of the medical eye"

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

While his teachings remained scientific and clinical-based, he knew how to present his observations in a colorful manner, without ever departing from the objectivity of the medical vision. He kept up with the latest medical advances but knew how to bring into light homeopathy’s notions, which he always

replaced in time, helped in this by his philosophical background. This culture was spread to all approaches from which he underlined the sound reflection pathways.

33

TRIBUTE

In memoriam Michel Guermonprez and he chose homeopathy, it was for us a chance to experience an outstanding educational experience.

We were lucky enough that he transcribed, in a book, everything he taught us during our improvement training courses: Homeopathy, clinical and technical principles published by the CEDH. First, he built a Materia Medica with the collaboration of two hospital pharmacists: Madeleine Pinkas and Monique Torck, and he constructed a fruitful parallel between our pathogenesis and the pharmacognosy of our homeopathic medicines’ strains.

I will also cite his book on behaviors that substitute all concepts that today’s medicine tends to reject, based on the pride of their modern concepts, i.e. Hippocratic temperament types. At that time, men already expressed their woes and afflictions, which are ours today. In fact we are not so different. Michel Guermonprez had this rare quality to highlight the real education He was the President of the Homeopathic Center of France, he was a direct student of Léon Vannier. We remember the days on the Charles Marie Widor street when we were just young physicians craving for this knew medical know-how, getting close to the famous key leaders of the homeopathic world.

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

Michel Guermonprez created the first Post-University Homeopathic Diploma at the Lille Medical School in collaboration with Dean Bernard Devulder and several of us worked towards its implementation.

Michel was still very attached to our Society, the Northern Society for Improvement in Homeopathy (NSIH). The Society he founded, the SPH has since merged with the NSIFH, in fact the society joined us during our last conference in Lille in 2012.

Our young generations were able to reestablish

34

This is a sad day in the history of Homeopathy.”

“

relationships legitimately differentiated by the dominating personalities of the time. We regularly informed him on our activities and that made Michel Guermonprez happy, he was still very attached to our Society which was still to him “his” society.

He could not be with us last year, so we presented his work on reasoned pluralism on his behalf. It was his main message, one that we are trying to safeguard and enrich with clinical practices from others. The homeopathic medicine and its indications shall not keep us away from the pathophysiological and Materia Medica notions. In spite of this, he remained open to the different practices of our homeopathic field and we will try to do the same in all our different Medical Societies. We will respect this legacy, which is still fully relevant and encompasses the great quality that Michel had, the modernity of his ideas.

Farewell to a great physician, a great professor and friend, all our thoughts go to his wife, children, grand-children, closed ones and friends. He will be missed by his patients who were very attached to him. We are thinking especially of Dr. Pascal Guermonprez his son, homeopathic physician in Gray, France. n

THE QUIZ / THE ANSWERS Question 1 :

Question 5 :

n B, C, D and E

Question 6 :

n A, B, D and F

Question 7 :

n A, D, E, F, G, H and I

Question 8 :

n B and D n A and C

Question 2 :

n B and C

Question 9 :

Question 3 :

nA

Question 10 :

Question 4 :

nD

n B and C

DECEMBER 2017 CEDH MAGAZINE

n A Erythematous phase: Apis mellifica – Urtica urens – Belladonna – Lung histamine – Croton tiglium n B Vesicular phase: Rhus toxicodendron – Rhus vernix – Cantharis vesicatoria – Ranunculus bulbosus n C Oozing phase: Antimonium crudum – Mezereum – Graphites – Viola tricolor

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