Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

It is a difficult thing to say which one of these two circumstances is most general, and it issometimes difficult to say which one is the general of the patient himself, because he confuses you bysaying: "I am worse in the cold", but when his headache is on he says: "I am better in the cold, I wantto be in the cold". It is really only the head, and you have to single these out and study them by theparts affected. When things are so striking you must examine into it to see what it is that brings aboutthe modality. You will see a similar state running through Phosphorus; the complaints of the stomachand head are better from cold, i.e., he wants cold applications upon the head with head sufferings, andwants cold things in the stomach with stomach complaints, but in all the complaints of the body he isameliorated from heat. If he steps out into the cool air, he will commence to cough, if he have a chesttrouble. So we see that the modalities that belong to the part affected must always be taken intoaccount. For instance, you have a patient suffering from neuralgia or rheumatic affections and thesesame pains extend to the head, then he wants the head wrapped up because they are ameliorated fromheat. But when it comes to cases of congestive conditions of the head, he then is better with his headvery cold. Now, as I have said, there is an alternation of these states in Arsenicum. I will illustrate bymentioning a case. Once a patient had been dragging along with periodical sick headaches.The sick headaches were better from cold water, cold applications to the head, could hardly getthem cold enough, and the colder the water. These headaches came every two weeks, and so long asthey were present he desired cold to the head. Then these periodical headaches would be better, forlong periods; but when they were away he was suffering from rheumatism of the joints, which was alsoperiodical, and also more or less tenacious, and when this rheumatism of the joints and extremities,with more or less swelling and edema, was present he could not get warm enough; he was at the fireand wrapped up; he was relieved by heat, and wanted warm air and a warm room. This would last for aperiod and then subside, and back would come his sick headaches and last for a while. That is what Imeant by the alternation of states. Arsenicum cured that man, and he never had any of them afterwards.The alternation of states sometimes means that there are two diseases in the body, and sometimes theremedy covers the whole feature in alternation of states. I remember another case, which will illustratethis peculiar nature of alternation of complaints, which is shared by other remedies besides Arsenic. Apatient suffered from a pressure in the top of the head, such as I recently described to you underAlumen. She would suffer for weeks from that pressure on the top of the head, and the only relief shecould get was from hard pressure; she tired herself out with hard pressure and would contrive all kindsof weights to put upon the head. That would go away in the night and she would wake up the nextmorning with constant urging to urinate. The irritable bladder alternated with pain on top of the head.Alumen cured. In many of these anti-psoric remedies we have an alternation of states. This illustratesthe necessity for getting the symptoms of all the states that present themselves for cure, otherwise youwill many times prescribe in a chronic case of psoric character and temporarily relief it, when backcomes another aspect of it. you have only hastened the disease a little faster than it would go if letalone. But that is not homeopathic prescribing. Be sure, when a remedy presents one state, that it is asclearly indicated in the other state, otherwise that remedy is not the simillimum. you must hunt untilyou find the remedy that has both states, or you will be disappointed. We sometimes do not discoverthis alternation of states until we have brought it back two or three times by incorrect prescribing. Somepeople are so reticent and so difficult to get symptoms from that we do not always get these symptoms.But you examine your record and you find where you have made a foolish prescription, that you drovea new condition away and back came the first trouble, and you kept on with this see-saw business. Nowremember in doing this your patient is not improving, and that you must re-study the whole case, takingthe alternating states into account. In Arsenic, the head symptoms alternate with physical symptoms.You will find running through certain remedies, as a part of their nature, that mental symptomsalternate with physical symptoms; when the physical symptoms are present, the mental symptoms arenot traits the necessity for getting the symptoms of all the states that is determined it is a good point,but sometimes you do not find a remedy, because many of our remedies are not well recorded; theyhave not yet been observed in their alternations and marked as such. We find in Podophyllum thepeculiar feature that the headaches alternate with diarrhea. He is subject to sick headaches and todiarrhea, and one or other will be present. In Arnica the mental symptoms alternate with uterinesymptoms. The uterine symptoms, when observed, look like Arnica, but these go away in the night andmental symptoms come on, the mind being heavy, gloomy and cloudy. When we have remedies thathave these manifestations it requires a greater depth of vision to see the alternation of states, becausethese things are not always brought out in the proving, for the reason that one prover had one group ofsymptoms, and another, another. Yet a remedy that is capable of bringing out the two groups ofsymptoms is sufficient to cure this alternation of states.