HWC Group

Organon aphorism §46

Many examples might be adduced of diseases which, in the course of nature, have been homeopathically cured by other diseases presenting similar symptoms, were it not necessary, as our object is to speak about something determinate and indubitable, to confine our attention solely to those (few) diseases which are invariably the same, arise from a fixed miasm, and hence merit a distinct name.

Among these the smallpox, so dreaded on account of the great number of its serious symptoms, occupies a prominent position, and it has removed and cured a number of maladies with similar symptoms.

How frequently does smallpox produce violent ophthalmia, sometimes even causing blindness! And see! by its inoculation Dezoteux(40) cured a chronic ophthalmia permanently, and Leroy(41) another.

An amaurosis of two years' duration, consequent on suppressed scald-head, was perfectly cured by it, according to Klein. (42)

How often does smallpox cause deafness and dyspnoea! And both these chronic diseases it removed on reaching its acme, as J. Fr. Closs (43) observed.

Swelling of the testicle, even of a very severe character, is a frequent symptom of smallpox, and on this account it was enabled, as Klein (44) observed, to cure, by virtue of similarity, a large hard swelling of the left testicle, consequent on a bruise. And another observer (45) saw a similar swelling of the testicle cured by it.

Among the troublesome symptoms of smallpox is a dysenteric state of the bowels; and it subdued, as Fr. Wendt (46) observed, a case of dysentery, as a similar morbific agent.

~Show #70

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §27

Organon aphorism §43

Totally different, however, is the result when TWO SIMILAR diseases meet together in the organism, that is to say, when to the disease already present a stronger similar one is added. In such cases we see how a cure can be effected by the operations of nature, and we get a lesson as to how man ought to cure.

Organon aphorism §44

Two SIMILAR diseases can neither (as is asserted of dissimilar diseases in I) REPEL one another, nor (as has been shown of dissimilar diseases in ii) SUSPEND one another, so that the old one shall return after the new one has run its course; and just as little can two SIMILAR diseases (as has been demonstrated in iii respecting dissimilar affections) EXIST BESIDE EACH OTHER in the same organism, or together form a DOUBLE complex disease.

Organon aphorism §45

No! two diseases, differing, it is true, in kind, (Vide, SUPRA, (§ 26), note) but very similar in their phenomena and effects and in the sufferings and symptoms they severally produce, invariably annihilate one another whenever they meet together in the organism; the stronger disease, namely, annihilates the weaker, and that for this simple reason, because the stronger morbific power when it invades the system, by reason of its similarity of action involves precisely the SAME parts of the organism that were previously affected by the weaker morbid irritation, which, consequently, can no longer act on these parts, but is extinguished; (39) or (in other words), the new similar but stronger morbific potency controls the feelings of the patient and hence the life principle on account of its peculiarity..

~Show #69

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §40

iii. Or THE NEW DISEASE, after having long acted on the organism, at length JOINS THE OLD ONE THAT IS DISSIMILAR TO IT, and forms with it a COMPLEX disease, so that each of them occupies a particular locality in the organism, namely, the organs peculiarly adapted for it, and, as it were, only the place specially belonging to it, whilst it leaves the rest to the other disease that is dissimilar to it. Thus a syphilitic patient may become psoric, and VICE VERSA. AS TWO DISEASES DISSIMILAR TO EACH OTHER, THEY CANNOT REMOVE, CANNOT CURE ONE ANOTHER. At first the venereal symptoms are kept in abeyance and suspended when the psoric eruption begins to appear; in course of time, however (as the syphilis is at least as strong as the psora), the two join together,(32) that is, each involves those parts of the organism only which are most adapted for it, and the patient is thereby rendered more diseased and more difficult to cure.

~Show #68

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §39

Now the adherents of the ordinary school of medicine saw all this for so many centuries; they saw that Nature herself cannot cure any disease by the accession of another, be it ever so strong, if the new disease be DISSIMILAR to that already present in the body. What shall we think of them, that they nevertheless went on treating chronic diseases with allopathic remedies, namely, with medicines and prescriptions capable of producing God knows what morbid state—almost invariably, however, one DISSIMILAR to the disease to be cured ?

And even though physicians did not hitherto observe nature attentively, the miserable results of their treatment should have taught them that they were pursuing an inappropriate, a false path.

~Show #67

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §37

So, also, UNDER ORDINARY MEDICAL TREATMENT, an old chronic disease remains uncured and unaltered if it is treated according to the common ALLOPATHIC method, that is to say, with medicines that are incapable of producing in healthy individuals a state of health similar to the disease, even though the treatment should last for years and is not of too violent character.(19) This is daily witnessed in practice, it is therefore unnecessary to give any illustrative examples.

Organon aphorism §38

So, also, UNDER ORDINARY MEDICAL TREATMENT, an old chronic disease remains uncured and unaltered if it is treated according to the common ALLOPATHIC method, that is to say, with medicines that are incapable of producing in healthy individuals a state of health similar to the disease, even though the treatment should last for years and is not of too violent character. (19) This is daily witnessed in practice, it is therefore unnecessary to give any illustrative examples.

~Show #66

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §34 & §35

The greater strength of the artificial diseases producible by medicines is, however, not the sole cause of their power to cure natural diseases. In order that they may effect a cure, it is before all things requisite that they should be capable of producing in the human body AN ARTIFICIAL DISEASE AS SIMILAR AS POSSIBLE to the disease to be cured, which, with somewhat increased power, transforms to a very similar morbid state the instinctive life principle, which in itself is incapable of any reflection or act of memory. It not only obscures, but extinguishes and thereby annihilates the derangement caused by the natural disease. This is so true, that no previously existing disease can be cured, even by Nature herself, by the accession of a new DISSIMILAR disease, be it ever so strong, and just as little can it be cured by medical treatment with drugs which are incapable of producing a SIMILAR morbid condition in the healthy body.

Organon aphorism §35

In order to illustrate this, we shall consider in three different cases, as well what happens in nature when two dissimilar natural diseases meet together in one person, as also the result of the ordinary medical treatment of diseases with unsuitable allopathic drugs, which are incapable of producing an artificial morbid condition similar to the disease to be cured, whereby it will appear that even Nature herself is unable to remove a dissimilar disease already present by one that is unhomeopathic, even though it be stronger, and just as little is the unhomeopathic employment of even the strongest medicines ever capable of curing any disease whatsoever. ~Show #65

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §32 -§33

But it is quite otherwise with the artificial morbific agents which we term medicines. Every real medicine, namely, acts at ALL times, under ALL circumstances, on EVERY living human being, and produces in him its peculiar symptoms (distinctly perceptible, if the dose be large enough), so that evidently every living human organism is liable to be affected, and, as it were, inoculated with the medicinal disease at all times, and absolutely (UNCONDITIONALLY), which, as before said, is by no means the case with the natural diseases.

Organon aphorism §33

In accordance with this fact, it is undeniably shown by all experience(17) that the living human organism is much more disposed and has a greater liability to be acted on, and to have its health deranged by medicinal powers, than by morbific noxious agents and infectious miasms, or, in other words, THAT THE MORBIFIC NOXIOUS AGENTS POSSESS A POWER OF MORBIDLY DERANGING MAN'S HEALTH THAT IS SUBORDINATE AND CONDITIONAL, OFTEN VERY CONDITIONAL; WHILST MEDICINAL AGENTS HAVE AN ABSOLUTE UNCONDITIONAL POWER, GREATLY SUPERIOR TO THE FORMER.

17] A striking fact in corroboration of this is, that whilst previously to the year 1801, when the smooth scarlatina of Sydenham still occasionally prevailed epidemically among children, it attacked without exception all children who had escaped it in a former epidemic; in a similar epidemic which I witnessed in Konigslutter, on the contrary, ALL the children who took in time a very small dose of belladonna remained unaffected by this highly infectious infantile disease. If medicines can protect from a disease that is raging around, they must possess a vastly superior power of affecting our vital force.

~Show #64

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §31

ThThe inimical forces, partly psychical, partly physical, to which our terrestrial existence is exposed, which are termed morbific noxious agents, do not possess the power of morbidly deranging the health of man unconditionally; (16) but we are made ill by them only when our organism is sufficiently disposed and susceptible to the attack of the morbific cause that may be present, and to be altered in its health, deranged and made to undergo abnormal sensations and functions—hence they do not produce disease in every one nor at all times.

[16] When I call disease a DERANGEMENT of man's state of health, I am far from wishing thereby to give a HYPERPHYSICAL explanation of the internal nature of diseases generally, or of any case of disease in particular. It is only intended by this expression to intimate, what it can be proved, diseases are NOT and CANNOT BE, that they are not mechanical or chemical alterations of the material substance of the body, and not dependent on a material morbific substance, but that they are merely spirit-like (conceptual) dynamic derangements of the life.

~Show #63

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §29

As every disease (not entirely surgical) consists only in a special, morbid, dynamic alteration of our vital energy (of the principle of life) manifested in sensation and motion, so in every homeopathic cure this principle of life dynamically altered by natural disease is seized through the administration of a medicinal potency selected exactly according to symptom-similarity by a somewhat stronger, similar artificial disease-manifestation. By this the feeling of the natural (weaker) dynamic disease-manifestation ceases and disappears. This disease-manifestation no longer exists for the principle of life which is now occupied and governed merely by the stronger, artificial disease-manifestation. This artificial disease-manifestation has soon spent its force and leaves the patient free from disease, cured. The dynamis, thus freed, can now continue to carry life on in health. This most highly probable process rests upon the following propositions.

Organon aphorism §30

The human body appears to admit of being much more powerfully affected in its health by medicines (partly because we have the regulation of the dose in our own power) than by natural morbid stimuli—for natural diseases are cured and overcome by suitable medicines.. ~Show #62

HWC Group

Organon aphorism §27

The curative power of medicines, therefore, depends on their symptoms, similar to the disease but superior to it in strength (§12-26), so that each individual case of disease is most surely, radically, rapidly and permanently annihilated and removed only by a medicine capable of producing (in the human system) in the most similar and complete manner the totality of its symptoms, which at the same time are stronger than the disease.

Organon aphorism §28

As this natural law of cure manifests itself in every pure experiment and every true observation in the world, the fact is consequently established; it matters little what may be the scientific explanation of HOW IT TAKES PLACE; and I do not attach much importance to the attempts made to explain it. But the following view seems to commend itself as the most probable one, as it is founded on premises derived from experience. ~Show #61