QUESTIONS
1. Which remedy should be given to a pregnant woman (single dose) whose foetus has ceased to grow in the womb?
2. Which remedy would you prescribe prophylactically during an encephalitis epidemic?
3. All the children of a woman already show syphilitic signs at birth. Which remedy would you give the woman (once) to eradicate the syphilitic diathesis in subsequent children?
4. Which homeopathic remedy should be taken by all practising homeopaths once a month? (Hardly any homeopath does this – for this reason alone homeopathy is in a poor state). Please note that this remedy should be given first to every homeopath who comes to you for treatment. The same applies to patients who have already been treated by several homeopaths.
5. Name two authors who have written a biography of Dr Samuel Hahnemann.
6. A patient complains of pains at many small, circumscribed spots on the body. If one were to join the painful spots with a line, this would form a straight vertical line, i.e. pain in the right temple, in the right half of the chest, on the right side of the abdomen. Do you know which remedy this is?
7. Which remedy is one of the most important in the treatment of haemophilia?
8. What is meant by the homeopathic terms 'scrofula' and 'cachexia'?
9. Which remedy is used to treat jaundice that occurs as a consequence of a blood transfusion?
10. Name the difference between the two remedies Phosphorus and Hamamelis with regard to the symptom 'bleeding'.
11. Name the appropriate remedy for a) a severe blow to a single part of the body; b) for a patient who is run over by a moving bus or train; c) for a patient who falls from a great height (from the second or third storey of a building or from a high tree) and bleeds; d) for a patient who falls while attempting to jump onto a moving vehicle?
12. Under which heading of the repertory would you look up a patient with chronic tonsillitis?
13. What is the best reference work for complaints of women directly before, during and after childbirth or miscarriage/abortion? Please give title and author.
14. A 28-year-old female patient has attempted suicide (she swallowed sleeping tablets or kerosene) and has partly recovered. Which remedy would you prescribe to this patient so that she does not attempt suicide again?
15. What is the best remedy for phantom pain?
16. A patient has fractured his shin. The fracture heals, but he still has pain and the wound discharges. A single dose of the suitable remedy cured him. Which remedy did the patient receive?
17. A patient consults an ophthalmologist because he has problems with his eyes. The doctor prescribes spectacles, but after only a few days the patient needs new spectacles because his vision is no longer correct. This goes on for some time. By now the patient has six different pairs of spectacles at home and always wears the one that suits his condition that day. He has to change constantly. A single dose of the suitable remedy cured him. Do you know which remedy it was?
18. Where would you look up the complaints of a) newborn children in the first 24 hours after birth and b) during the first year of life?
19. A 75-year-old man stands with his walking stick at the roadside and asks a pedestrian to help him across the road. The man walks very unsteadily, trembling all over. We have cured three such cases with a single dose of the corresponding remedy. Do you know which remedy it is?
ANSWERS
1. The remedy Secale can almost be regarded as a specific for arrested development of the foetus in the womb (see also: Dr Calvin B. Knerr: GENITALIA—FEMALE, Pregnancy, foetus: arrests development, Secale). A single dose of Secale 10M is sufficient.
2. See Calvin B. Knerr's Repertory: Head—Cerebrospinal affections – meningitis – epidemic: Zinc.
3. See Calvin B. Knerr’s Repertory: Stages of Life and Constitution—Constitution, syphilitic—mothers, to prevent disease in offspring: Aurum-mur-nat.
4. See Kent's Repertory – GENERAL – IRRITABILITY, physical – Medicines have produced a hypersensitive state and well-chosen remedies remain ineffective; if too many: Ph-ac. Teucr.
(Homeopaths give their patients medicines. Every time a homeopath opens the medicine bottle – it makes no difference whether the remedies are potentised or mother tinctures – in order to administer the remedy to his patient, he inevitably inhales the vapours of that remedy through his sense of smell. Remember that Dr Hahnemann had his patients smell a remedy. Repeatedly smelling many potentised remedies irritates the organism and makes the homeopath restless and/or arrogant to the point where he thinks he no longer needs to learn anything about homeopathy. When a homeopath falls ill, it is often the case that no remedy seems to act.)
5. Samuel Hahnemann – His Life and Work by Dr Richard Haehl and another book, Life and Letters of Dr Samuel Hahnemann by Bradford.
6. A) Oxalicum acidum (Myelitis acuta, inflammation of the spinal cord), myelitis paralytica; pains occur at small, vertical spots, < worse from thinking about the complaints; stiff limbs; dyspnoea and spasmodic constriction of the chest, short, jerking inhalation with pauses between; back pain slowly radiating into the thighs, tormenting pains, seeks relief by changing position; back too weak to support the body; softening of the spine, weakness in the lumbar region and hips, radiating into the legs, with numbness and loss of strength.
b) Oxalicum acidum (paralysis) – sclerotic changes of the posterior horn; pains start from the spine and shoot into the extremities, especially the legs, stiff limbs, dyspnoea followed by a singular general numbness bordering on paralysis; back too weak to support the body; jerking pains, pinpoint at small spots, lasting only a few seconds; pains that form a vertical line; attacks of dyspnoea.
Symptoms that run horizontally are not known.
(The information for a) and b) comes from Lilienthal. Do you already own an edition?)
7. Crotalus horridus is the first remedy for haemophilia.
8. A) see also the answer to question 12.
B) Diseases, especially acute cases, that despite the best treatment drag on for a long time and cannot be cured. The patient suffers greatly and cannot attend to his daily routine. We can summarise this under the term 'cachexia'. Acute illnesses such as coughs, colds, diarrhoea or skin rashes usually heal quickly. If, however, a patient has suffered from these symptoms for years, we can speak of 'cachexia'. In other words: it is a weakness of the whole organism or of individual body parts.
9. Crotalus horridus.
10. A) Hamamelis: passive bleeding without anxiety or pain. B) Phosphorus: active bleeding with anxiety.
11. A) Arnica B) Cicuta C) Millefolium D) Phosphorus
12. For a patient with chronic tonsillitis one would repertorise as follows:
Inflammation, tonsils (p. 471 in Kent's Repertory). The remedies listed are suitable for treating acute complaints. To truly cure a chronic tonsillitis, we must orientate ourselves to the treatment of chronic diseases. The cause of a chronic tonsillitis is tuberculosis (see MEDICAL DISEASES OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD by Dawson Williams, London: Cassell & Co. pp. 338–348).
If the tuberculinic diathesis affects the lungs, it is called pulmonary tuberculosis or phthisis. The term 'scrofula' or 'goitre' is used when a family history of tuberculosis is present and the disease concerns the bones or glands.
All chronic complaints of the glands are attributable to a familial predisposition to tuberculosis. The cause of chronic bone complaints can be found either in 'tuberculosis' or in 'syphilis' (in syphilitic bone complaints we have the symptom 'boring pains at night').
To be able to cure a patient with chronic tonsillitis we must consider the following rubrics:
Scrofula – Glandular complaints: Bar., Bell., Calc., Carb. an., Cist., Clem., Con., Dulc., Graph., Hep., Kali, Lapis, Lyc., Merc., Nitr. ac., Phos., Rhus, Sil., Staph., Sulph. [See p. 943 in Lilienthal]
13. The Handbook of Midwifery by Dr A.W. Yingling.
14. See Dr Calvin B. Knerr’s REPERTORY – MIND – suicide attempt: Plb.
15. Pains occurring after an amputation at the stump are called phantom pains: Allium cepa is the corresponding remedy.
16. See Calvin B. Knerr’s REPERTORY—GENERAL—Bones, injuries, ... after fracture of the tibia: ANTHRACIN.
17. “…a patient consulted several ophthalmologists, but no one could remedy his visual disturbance. There was no pair of spectacles that fit… Lac felinum cured.” (See also Kent’s Lectures under Spigelia.)
18. The answer is: a) see Yingling, last chapter, 'The Newborn'. b) See (i) the chapter GENITALIA – FEMALE – CHILDREN in Dr Calvin B. Knerr's Repertory and (ii) 'Childhood Diseases – Morbi Neonatorum et Infantum' in HOMOEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS by Dr Samuel Lilienthal.
19. Physostigma (Calabar bean) – on walking a sensation of insecurity from the knees downwards, so that he must walk very cautiously, especially when his eyes are closed; he must be able to see where he is going; demands a walking stick to lean on; stiffness of the rectus femoris; apathy, sluggishness; flatulence.
Irritation of the spinal cord, loss of mobility, exhaustion… fibrillary tremor. Muscle rigidity; paralysis. Reduces the motor and reflex activity of the spinal cord and causes insensitivity to pain, muscle weakness… paralysis and trembling, chorea. – Boericke, Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica
Trembling of the legs as if one cannot walk straight. A feeling as if all strength has left the legs and they would give way; as if the cause of the weakness came from that one spot in the back between the hips and took away all strength below that spot… shuddering and trembling run through all the nerves of the body… violent trembling all over in the street; feels for a moment as if she would lose consciousness and could hardly get home; twenty minutes' riding in a carriage did not improve the sensation. Loss of voluntary movement without loss of consciousness. Complete relaxation of the whole body as if every nerve were slackened, even to the eyes, which felt as if all power of seeing had departed from them.
Dizziness and fainting weakness without distress. Paralyses the motor nerves but does not impair sensation, intelligence and excitability of the muscles. – Leading Symptoms of Our Materia Medica Vol. 1–10 by Dr Constantine Hering – Calabar bean.
In a trembling, elderly patient who can only walk with a stick and is very unsteady, you should always think of Physostigma (Calabar bean) 10M. Physostigma is the geriatric remedy par excellence. It is worth learning the symptoms described above by heart.
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