The publisher:

Numerous homeopathic practitioners have, for a long time, been asking me to write "my materia medica." They feel that the information I have provided in various courses over the years should reach a wider audience. To date, this information has been available to only a limited number of homeopathic physicians. I have postponed this Herculean task for many years in order to create the necessary circumstances to do justice to such a tremendous undertaking, namely, to communicate my experience, knowledge and understanding of our materia medica.

When these requests began, as early as 1975-76, I did not see any reason to write such a book, as I felt I had little new to add to the already voluminous amount of information concerning our homeopathic remedies and their pathognomonic pictures.

Subsequently I was persuaded by my best students of the importance of publishing a complete Materia Medica, one that would contain all the information and understanding I have accumulated over my last thirty years of practice.

Because a real need exists for this information, I have decided to publish Materia Medica Viva in separate volumes rather than wait for the entire work to be completed.

The structure

I have structured the Materia Medica Viva so that the information may be used for both study and reference.
The Essential Features are the part of the remedy that should be studied by the student. The remainder should be used only for reference when studying a case.

1. The Essential Features, which I consider the heart of the remedy, in which I give mostly my own experience and my understanding of the remedy. In this chapter I have tried to capture the uniqueness of each remedy, the peculiarities that make one remedy different from another, so that the student may be helped to understand the remedy in its essence and the way it differs from others.

This is the part students should study.

2. The second part gives generalities and keynote symptoms for the various systems. This part is only for reference when studying a case.

I eagerly look forward to the day when we, as a homeopathic community, possess the means to engage in truly meaningful homeopathic research — research aimed at improving our knowledge of our medicines and at establishing correct and reliable information concerning the action of homeopathic remedies on the human organism.