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Hahnemann in the face of modern psychosomatic medicine
72
THE
BRITISH
HOMG~OPATHIC
JOURNAL
HAHNEMANN I N T H E FACE OF MODERN PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE B y DR. HIL~tRIO LUNA C.~STRO " I n every prescription both the psychic and the physical symptoms should b e taken into account, in order to select the truly Homceopathie remedy. "--DR. J. T. KENT, Lesser Writings, 1888. PSYCHOSOMATIC medicine is as old as the sufferings and the diseases that have always accompanied human kind and it does not constitute a separate chapter of pathology, clinical medicine or therapeutics, but is the constant relation existing between the psychic conditions of every individual and his somatic ailment, whether infectious, functional or organic. Since the last few decades it has been regarded as a new and important clinical orientation in the art of healing. Hippocrates, who has been called the Father of Medicine by the Traditional School, pointed out the relation between the somatic conditions and the diverse psychic states of the patient. Thus he described the febrile deliria, the puerperal psychosis, the mental state of epileptics, of maniacs, of hysteria, etc. Likewise Herophilus, Erasistratus, Asclepiades, Celsus, Galen and others, contributed somewhat in this respect, but like Hippocrates, with rather psychiatric orientations. Later, during the Renaissance, Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus yon Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (1493-1541) (16th century), recognizes for the first time, followed by Jean Baptiste van Helmont (1577-1644) (17th century) the role of mental and emotional factors in bodily diseases. Both are, therefore, the precursors of psychosomatic medicine. The renowned Founder of the therapeutic axiom, Similia Similibus Curentur, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann {1755-1843) (19th century), a man who lived long before his time and was profoundly learned and of a genial clinical mind, as may be observed from his writings, can also be regarded as a precursor of present psychosomatic medicine. In effect, in Paragraphs 210 to 230, inclusive, of his Exposition of the Homeopathic medical Doctrine or Organon of the Art of Healing, he lays down rules and precise indications as to how the psychic condition is to be interpreted in the various diseases that have affected and are still affecting mankind. I t should be observed that in those Paragraphs, Hahnemann the Immortal mentions also the psychiatric problems which I shall not refer to now. I shall merely underline Paragraphs 210 and 211, that in my opinion correspond to present psychosomatic medicine. Anatomists, neurologists, psychiatrists and clinicians have all contributed to enrich during these last years the psychosomatic problem of medicine and an eminent Canadian physician, Sir William Osler ( 1849-1919), in his work Principles and Practice of Medicine (14th edition, New York, 1942), gave in this respect the following definition: "Psychosomatic Medicine is that branch of medicine dealing with the study of both physical and emotional phenomena that occur in the morbid processes of the patient, and particularly with the reciprocal influence that these two factors have on the whole of the individual." .4 renowned neurologist, Dr. K u r t Goldstein, believes that, from the psychosomatic point of view, disease is a disturbance Of the whole vital activity, wherein the psychic and the somatic elements are intermingled. Dr. Flanders Dunbar, professor of the University of Columbia, U.S.A., 1950, says: "There does not exist any purely psychic or purely physical disease, as these are processes concurring in the living organism and therefore both the psychic and the somatic are integrated into one." Dejerine, Ludolf, Ribot, Ewald, yon Bergmann, yon Krehl, Kraus, Kraepelin, Cannon, Marie, Roussy, Freud, Karplus, Cajal, Richet, Riggs,
:I-IA~INEMANN
IN THE
FACE
OF MODERN
PSYCHOSOMATIC
MEDICINE
73
Bard, Dunbar, Pi y Suffer, etc., have all contributed in various manners to demonstrate the importance of this extremely interesting chapter of psychosomatic medicine as far as general practice is concerned. Taking into consideration all the various theories, clinical observations, laboratory and experimental works that have been devised or carried out in this respect, the conclusion is reached that emotion is the outstanding phenomenon that best demonstrates the relation arising between the psychic phenomena and the disturbances in the somatic part of the individual. An eminent Spanish neurologist, Dr. Augusto Pi y Suffer, in his work, Neuro-Vegetative System (1947), says: "Emotion is a primitive, total, somatic, vegetative, psychological and physiological, mental and visceral reaction, before the actual or supposed menace of danger or by any organic impulsion, in which the organism as a whole responds in numerous ways." "In this reaction the centres of innervation of the various hierarchies of the subject come into action with the co-operation of all vegetative and relation functions. In this phenomenon physiological as well as endocrine, humoral, physical and chemical functions of the subject participate in joint manner. In short, the aggregate of phenomena of a somatic character and of a psychic aspect as well become evidently manifest under emotion." In order fully to appreciate the total state of an individual under the effects of any emotion some data should be kept in mind that from the anatomic, physiological, psychiatric and experimental points of view will aid us in correctly interpreting this phenomenon. The physiology of the nervous vegetative and endocrine systems and the physiopathology of the diencephalon and especially that of the hypothalamus, reveal the manner in which the functions of psycho-organic interaction of the subject are performed. Cannon has proved that the neurovegetative system has an intra-affective action and that the central nervous system has an extra-affective action. Since both systems are not independent, because nothing is independent in the organism, the united action of these regulates and co-ordinates the psychic and somatic life of the individual. The phenomena affecting all the organism, especially the endocrine system, are regulated and co-ordinated by the hypothalamus as well as by the peripheral neurovegetative system, the sympathicus and the parasympathicus, which have numerous connections with the hypophysis, the medulla, the vegetative and somatic bulbar centres, the protuberantial centres, the striated system, etc., etc. The following is an example: the activity of the sympathicus accelerates the cardiac rhythm, inhibits the bronchial muscles and the smooth fibres of the digestive tract and urinary bladder, contracts the arterial walls, excites the glands and smooth fibres of the skin, dilates the pupil, accelerates the suprarenal secretions and thyroid, causes hyperglycemia by increase of the hepatic glycogenolysis and its action is shown also on the muscles and on the humoral structure and composition. The parasympathicus stimulates the digestive function, inhibits the action of the heart, dilates the blood vessels, causes the insulin secretion from the pancreas to increase, favours the reserves of the hepatic glycogen and increases the tone and the movements of the urinary tract. The pneumogastric nerve is the main motor and activator of the digestive tract secretions, etc., etc. The neurovegetative system is precisely that which in organic life presides over the visceral and the vegetative functions as a whole and these should be so equilibrated that their structure, nourishment and function will give the characteristics of the subject, thus constituting the most important anatomophysiological factor among those deciding the behaviour of the subject towards the outside world and the various influences of the enviroment. Emotion, a functional synergy between the vegetative and the somatic
74
THE
BRITISH
ItOM(EOPATHIC
JOURNAL
centres, constitutes a vital phenomenon whose sphere of action is so important that phenomena are shown in which different neurosomatic mechanisms and mechanisms of the psychic field combine. In short, a total response of the individual before danger, menace or impulsion, is found in every emotion. Thus upon any recollection, idea or mental representation, or upon a visual, acoustic, olfactory or tactile stimulus, or both together as is more frequently the case, the hypothalamic nuclei come into action and their manifestations take place through the action of the sympathicus or the parasympathicus, which act on the endocrine system, the muscular system and the viscera. The reactions of every emotion are always by a double action. They go from the psychic to the somatic and vice versa, forming a circle t h a t becomes enlarged or reduced depending on the intensity of the emotional phenomenon. Having thus briefly described the emotional phenomenon, one should keep in mind the psychosomatic participation arising in every individual pathologic case, considering t h a t its effects shall be in direct relation to the resisting conditions, both psychic and organic, of each subject. I n this connection it has been said that organic and mental diseases, as well as those caused by pathogenic agents, would not take place if the natural resistance and the vital energy of the subject were not weakened by tim emotional strain of daily life in the struggle for survival and happiness, Dejerine, Freud, Adler, Jung, Weizsacker, etc., etc., have proved that in every functional ailment or in troubles caused by organic lesions the psychogenic overcharges, as well as the animic conflicting personal, familial or environmental conditions are capable of causing or maintaining ailments, whether functional or organic, that tend to chronicity or become incurable. Thus we can ascertain t h a t psychic emotional causes m a y give rise to clinical pictures of the most varied kinds and they manifest themselves through digestive disturbances, anorexia, intestinal spasms, diarrhoea or vomiting, spasms of the pylorus and the sphincter of Oddi, which cause cholecystitis or cholelithiasis, respiratory disturbances, such as bronchial asthma and dyspnoea, alterations of the cardiac rhythm, urinary symptoms such as polyuria, anuria, genital affections, paraplegia, contractures, sensitive or sensorial disturbances, alterations in the secretory activity of the mucous membranes and the skin, disturbances in the hormonic equilibrium, pruriginous alterations, urticaria, eczematous or warty alterations, etc., etc. The difference between the organic lesion and the functional disturbance is not always distinct, and it can be proved t h a t numerous organic lesions begin as functional lesions, for instance, an emotional tachycardia extremely prolonged finally causes anatomic lesions of the myocardium. A long protracted emotional strain m a y cause Basedow's disease, diabetes, arterial hypertension, ulcer of the duodenum, biliary lithiasis, spasmodic colitis, neuritis, algias of various localization, visceral neurosis, hysteria, neurasthenia, etc., etc. The ideas and theories handed down to us over a century ago by the eminent and immortal Founder of Homoeopathy, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, receive further confirmation with the daily progress of modern medical science, and thus we have what at present constitutes a new orientation in general therapeutics and is known as "Psychosomatic Medicine" which had already been perfectly well interpreted and designed by the Father of Homceopathic Medicine, who in a most emphatic and precise manner says in Paragraph 210 of his masterful work Exposition of the Homeeopathic Medical Doctrine or Organon of the Art of Healing, among other things the following: " . . . In this place belong the ailments of the spirit and the moral diseases. These affections (meaning the psychic diseases) do not, however, form a separate class, thoroughly apart from the others, because the state of the morale and of the spirit changes with every bodily disease, and they should be included among the main symptoms that must be noted when one wishes
H A H N : E M A N N I N T H E F A C E OF M O D E R N
PSYCHOSOMATIC
MEDICI:LNE
75
to draw a faithful image of the disease . . ." Besides, in Paragraph 211 of the Organon, he states: "The importance of the moral condition of the patient is such that the selection of the homcsopathic remedy is often decided particularly in view of such state . . .", and as if this were not enough, in Paragraph 215, he says: "most of the diseases called moral affections and affections of the spirit (psychic) are but diseases of the body (somatic), in which the alteration of the moral and intellectual faculties has become superior to the other symptoms . . ." Furthermore, it should be emphasized that from the first pure proving on a healthy man, made by the renowned Founder of Homoeopathy with Cinchona qficinalis, he devoted special attention both to the physical or somatic symptoms, and to the moral or psychic symptoms. I n all the pathogeneses obtained ever since under his own direction, as well as in the provings and re-provings on healthy man, t h a t have been made throughout the world, special care has been taken to register the most important psychic symptoms of each remedy, co-ordinating these with the somatic symptoms, both in acute and in chronic eases, thus establishing a true psychopharmacological investigation. No disciple of Hahnemann, while studying Materia Medica, will forget the loquacity delirium of Stramonium; or the stuporous mumbling delirium and the jealousy of Hyoscyamus; or the hallucinatory wild delirium of Belladonna, with a red hyper~emic face and visible beats at the carotids; the agitation and prostration of Baptisia, in which the patient feels as if double or cut to pieces, whereby he has to move in order to gather his own parts; the fear of death of Aconitum nap., the tendency to shed tears of Pulsatilla; the irritable state of Nux vomica; the variable, melancholic, silent, retracted character, inclined to sighing and weeping of Ignatia; the weak memory and susceptibility to terror and the fear of being alone, with aversion to household duties, of Sepia. The loathing of life and tendency to suicide of Aurum met. ; the errors of distance perception and the haste and dissatisfaction of Argentum nit. ; the whimsical, impatient, restless character of children and patients t h a t are hypersensitive to pain and gloomy and unsociable as a consequence of anger of Chamomilla; the slowness to answer, the fixed unexpressive stare, the absence of ideas, the unvoluntary sighing and complete unconsciousness to everything about the patient, of Helleborus nig.; the anxiety with fainting fits at the slightest excitement, as well as spasms of the larynx with sensation of constriction of the throat, the laughter and alternating shouts of Moschus. The anguish, fear of death and marked uneasiness, the tendency to suicide, a weak memory and burning pain in all the body t h a t become aggravated in quiet and at night of Arsenicum alb. Emotional hypersensitivity, yearning of quiet and solitude, bad effects from emotional shock, and in children the need to take hold of the clothes of near-by people for fear of falling down of Gelsemium; the great loquacity with fear of being poisoned and refusal to take medicines, the profound sadness, the delusion of being under some superhuman power and the mystic delirium of Lachesis; the irritable character with tendency to continuous wailing, religious melancholia, egocentricity, the lack of interest in and :loathing of life of Sulphur, with patient clothing himself with rags and imagining he wears the finest apparel, with delirium grandiosum, etc., etc. This brief outline shows that in every prescription made in accordance with the principles established by the great Founder, a true psychosomatic therapeutics is instituted. CONCLUSIONS
l s t . - - T h e eminent Fomlder of Homceopathy, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, must be regarded as one of the precursors of modern psychosomatic medicine.
76
THE
BRITISH
I-IOM(EOrATHI(~
JOURNAL
2nd.--Homceopathic Materia Medica, based on pure proving on healthy man, is the only one in all medical schools that in the pharmacodynamic action of each medicament has a most extensive symptomatology, both somatic and psychic, both these factors keeping a reciprocal and close relation, and therefore we should adscribe to the Founder of Homoeopathic Medical Science the merit and the glory of establishing, more than a century ago, "Psychopharmaeology", which according to Dr. Sz~kely, the Founder of Freud Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina, constitutes at present, 1950, a new and most important orientation for Therapeutics in the Traditional School and 3rd.--For a truly correct homceopathic prescription, it is essential to find the simillimum between both the psychic and the somatic symptoms of the patient and the psychic and the somatic symptoms of the remedy, in order to obtain a curative response that will as always confirm the immutable truth of the law of Similia Similibus Curentur.
THE
BRITISH
HOMG~OPATHIC
JOURNAL
HAHNEMANN I N T H E FACE OF MODERN PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE B y DR. HIL~tRIO LUNA C.~STRO " I n every prescription both the psychic and the physical symptoms should b e taken into account, in order to select the truly Homceopathie remedy. "--DR. J. T. KENT, Lesser Writings, 1888. PSYCHOSOMATIC medicine is as old as the sufferings and the diseases that have always accompanied human kind and it does not constitute a separate chapter of pathology, clinical medicine or therapeutics, but is the constant relation existing between the psychic conditions of every individual and his somatic ailment, whether infectious, functional or organic. Since the last few decades it has been regarded as a new and important clinical orientation in the art of healing. Hippocrates, who has been called the Father of Medicine by the Traditional School, pointed out the relation between the somatic conditions and the diverse psychic states of the patient. Thus he described the febrile deliria, the puerperal psychosis, the mental state of epileptics, of maniacs, of hysteria, etc. Likewise Herophilus, Erasistratus, Asclepiades, Celsus, Galen and others, contributed somewhat in this respect, but like Hippocrates, with rather psychiatric orientations. Later, during the Renaissance, Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus yon Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (1493-1541) (16th century), recognizes for the first time, followed by Jean Baptiste van Helmont (1577-1644) (17th century) the role of mental and emotional factors in bodily diseases. Both are, therefore, the precursors of psychosomatic medicine. The renowned Founder of the therapeutic axiom, Similia Similibus Curentur, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann {1755-1843) (19th century), a man who lived long before his time and was profoundly learned and of a genial clinical mind, as may be observed from his writings, can also be regarded as a precursor of present psychosomatic medicine. In effect, in Paragraphs 210 to 230, inclusive, of his Exposition of the Homeopathic medical Doctrine or Organon of the Art of Healing, he lays down rules and precise indications as to how the psychic condition is to be interpreted in the various diseases that have affected and are still affecting mankind. I t should be observed that in those Paragraphs, Hahnemann the Immortal mentions also the psychiatric problems which I shall not refer to now. I shall merely underline Paragraphs 210 and 211, that in my opinion correspond to present psychosomatic medicine. Anatomists, neurologists, psychiatrists and clinicians have all contributed to enrich during these last years the psychosomatic problem of medicine and an eminent Canadian physician, Sir William Osler ( 1849-1919), in his work Principles and Practice of Medicine (14th edition, New York, 1942), gave in this respect the following definition: "Psychosomatic Medicine is that branch of medicine dealing with the study of both physical and emotional phenomena that occur in the morbid processes of the patient, and particularly with the reciprocal influence that these two factors have on the whole of the individual." .4 renowned neurologist, Dr. K u r t Goldstein, believes that, from the psychosomatic point of view, disease is a disturbance Of the whole vital activity, wherein the psychic and the somatic elements are intermingled. Dr. Flanders Dunbar, professor of the University of Columbia, U.S.A., 1950, says: "There does not exist any purely psychic or purely physical disease, as these are processes concurring in the living organism and therefore both the psychic and the somatic are integrated into one." Dejerine, Ludolf, Ribot, Ewald, yon Bergmann, yon Krehl, Kraus, Kraepelin, Cannon, Marie, Roussy, Freud, Karplus, Cajal, Richet, Riggs,
:I-IA~INEMANN
IN THE
FACE
OF MODERN
PSYCHOSOMATIC
MEDICINE
73
Bard, Dunbar, Pi y Suffer, etc., have all contributed in various manners to demonstrate the importance of this extremely interesting chapter of psychosomatic medicine as far as general practice is concerned. Taking into consideration all the various theories, clinical observations, laboratory and experimental works that have been devised or carried out in this respect, the conclusion is reached that emotion is the outstanding phenomenon that best demonstrates the relation arising between the psychic phenomena and the disturbances in the somatic part of the individual. An eminent Spanish neurologist, Dr. Augusto Pi y Suffer, in his work, Neuro-Vegetative System (1947), says: "Emotion is a primitive, total, somatic, vegetative, psychological and physiological, mental and visceral reaction, before the actual or supposed menace of danger or by any organic impulsion, in which the organism as a whole responds in numerous ways." "In this reaction the centres of innervation of the various hierarchies of the subject come into action with the co-operation of all vegetative and relation functions. In this phenomenon physiological as well as endocrine, humoral, physical and chemical functions of the subject participate in joint manner. In short, the aggregate of phenomena of a somatic character and of a psychic aspect as well become evidently manifest under emotion." In order fully to appreciate the total state of an individual under the effects of any emotion some data should be kept in mind that from the anatomic, physiological, psychiatric and experimental points of view will aid us in correctly interpreting this phenomenon. The physiology of the nervous vegetative and endocrine systems and the physiopathology of the diencephalon and especially that of the hypothalamus, reveal the manner in which the functions of psycho-organic interaction of the subject are performed. Cannon has proved that the neurovegetative system has an intra-affective action and that the central nervous system has an extra-affective action. Since both systems are not independent, because nothing is independent in the organism, the united action of these regulates and co-ordinates the psychic and somatic life of the individual. The phenomena affecting all the organism, especially the endocrine system, are regulated and co-ordinated by the hypothalamus as well as by the peripheral neurovegetative system, the sympathicus and the parasympathicus, which have numerous connections with the hypophysis, the medulla, the vegetative and somatic bulbar centres, the protuberantial centres, the striated system, etc., etc. The following is an example: the activity of the sympathicus accelerates the cardiac rhythm, inhibits the bronchial muscles and the smooth fibres of the digestive tract and urinary bladder, contracts the arterial walls, excites the glands and smooth fibres of the skin, dilates the pupil, accelerates the suprarenal secretions and thyroid, causes hyperglycemia by increase of the hepatic glycogenolysis and its action is shown also on the muscles and on the humoral structure and composition. The parasympathicus stimulates the digestive function, inhibits the action of the heart, dilates the blood vessels, causes the insulin secretion from the pancreas to increase, favours the reserves of the hepatic glycogen and increases the tone and the movements of the urinary tract. The pneumogastric nerve is the main motor and activator of the digestive tract secretions, etc., etc. The neurovegetative system is precisely that which in organic life presides over the visceral and the vegetative functions as a whole and these should be so equilibrated that their structure, nourishment and function will give the characteristics of the subject, thus constituting the most important anatomophysiological factor among those deciding the behaviour of the subject towards the outside world and the various influences of the enviroment. Emotion, a functional synergy between the vegetative and the somatic
74
THE
BRITISH
ItOM(EOPATHIC
JOURNAL
centres, constitutes a vital phenomenon whose sphere of action is so important that phenomena are shown in which different neurosomatic mechanisms and mechanisms of the psychic field combine. In short, a total response of the individual before danger, menace or impulsion, is found in every emotion. Thus upon any recollection, idea or mental representation, or upon a visual, acoustic, olfactory or tactile stimulus, or both together as is more frequently the case, the hypothalamic nuclei come into action and their manifestations take place through the action of the sympathicus or the parasympathicus, which act on the endocrine system, the muscular system and the viscera. The reactions of every emotion are always by a double action. They go from the psychic to the somatic and vice versa, forming a circle t h a t becomes enlarged or reduced depending on the intensity of the emotional phenomenon. Having thus briefly described the emotional phenomenon, one should keep in mind the psychosomatic participation arising in every individual pathologic case, considering t h a t its effects shall be in direct relation to the resisting conditions, both psychic and organic, of each subject. I n this connection it has been said that organic and mental diseases, as well as those caused by pathogenic agents, would not take place if the natural resistance and the vital energy of the subject were not weakened by tim emotional strain of daily life in the struggle for survival and happiness, Dejerine, Freud, Adler, Jung, Weizsacker, etc., etc., have proved that in every functional ailment or in troubles caused by organic lesions the psychogenic overcharges, as well as the animic conflicting personal, familial or environmental conditions are capable of causing or maintaining ailments, whether functional or organic, that tend to chronicity or become incurable. Thus we can ascertain t h a t psychic emotional causes m a y give rise to clinical pictures of the most varied kinds and they manifest themselves through digestive disturbances, anorexia, intestinal spasms, diarrhoea or vomiting, spasms of the pylorus and the sphincter of Oddi, which cause cholecystitis or cholelithiasis, respiratory disturbances, such as bronchial asthma and dyspnoea, alterations of the cardiac rhythm, urinary symptoms such as polyuria, anuria, genital affections, paraplegia, contractures, sensitive or sensorial disturbances, alterations in the secretory activity of the mucous membranes and the skin, disturbances in the hormonic equilibrium, pruriginous alterations, urticaria, eczematous or warty alterations, etc., etc. The difference between the organic lesion and the functional disturbance is not always distinct, and it can be proved t h a t numerous organic lesions begin as functional lesions, for instance, an emotional tachycardia extremely prolonged finally causes anatomic lesions of the myocardium. A long protracted emotional strain m a y cause Basedow's disease, diabetes, arterial hypertension, ulcer of the duodenum, biliary lithiasis, spasmodic colitis, neuritis, algias of various localization, visceral neurosis, hysteria, neurasthenia, etc., etc. The ideas and theories handed down to us over a century ago by the eminent and immortal Founder of Homoeopathy, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, receive further confirmation with the daily progress of modern medical science, and thus we have what at present constitutes a new orientation in general therapeutics and is known as "Psychosomatic Medicine" which had already been perfectly well interpreted and designed by the Father of Homceopathic Medicine, who in a most emphatic and precise manner says in Paragraph 210 of his masterful work Exposition of the Homeeopathic Medical Doctrine or Organon of the Art of Healing, among other things the following: " . . . In this place belong the ailments of the spirit and the moral diseases. These affections (meaning the psychic diseases) do not, however, form a separate class, thoroughly apart from the others, because the state of the morale and of the spirit changes with every bodily disease, and they should be included among the main symptoms that must be noted when one wishes
H A H N : E M A N N I N T H E F A C E OF M O D E R N
PSYCHOSOMATIC
MEDICI:LNE
75
to draw a faithful image of the disease . . ." Besides, in Paragraph 211 of the Organon, he states: "The importance of the moral condition of the patient is such that the selection of the homcsopathic remedy is often decided particularly in view of such state . . .", and as if this were not enough, in Paragraph 215, he says: "most of the diseases called moral affections and affections of the spirit (psychic) are but diseases of the body (somatic), in which the alteration of the moral and intellectual faculties has become superior to the other symptoms . . ." Furthermore, it should be emphasized that from the first pure proving on a healthy man, made by the renowned Founder of Homoeopathy with Cinchona qficinalis, he devoted special attention both to the physical or somatic symptoms, and to the moral or psychic symptoms. I n all the pathogeneses obtained ever since under his own direction, as well as in the provings and re-provings on healthy man, t h a t have been made throughout the world, special care has been taken to register the most important psychic symptoms of each remedy, co-ordinating these with the somatic symptoms, both in acute and in chronic eases, thus establishing a true psychopharmacological investigation. No disciple of Hahnemann, while studying Materia Medica, will forget the loquacity delirium of Stramonium; or the stuporous mumbling delirium and the jealousy of Hyoscyamus; or the hallucinatory wild delirium of Belladonna, with a red hyper~emic face and visible beats at the carotids; the agitation and prostration of Baptisia, in which the patient feels as if double or cut to pieces, whereby he has to move in order to gather his own parts; the fear of death of Aconitum nap., the tendency to shed tears of Pulsatilla; the irritable state of Nux vomica; the variable, melancholic, silent, retracted character, inclined to sighing and weeping of Ignatia; the weak memory and susceptibility to terror and the fear of being alone, with aversion to household duties, of Sepia. The loathing of life and tendency to suicide of Aurum met. ; the errors of distance perception and the haste and dissatisfaction of Argentum nit. ; the whimsical, impatient, restless character of children and patients t h a t are hypersensitive to pain and gloomy and unsociable as a consequence of anger of Chamomilla; the slowness to answer, the fixed unexpressive stare, the absence of ideas, the unvoluntary sighing and complete unconsciousness to everything about the patient, of Helleborus nig.; the anxiety with fainting fits at the slightest excitement, as well as spasms of the larynx with sensation of constriction of the throat, the laughter and alternating shouts of Moschus. The anguish, fear of death and marked uneasiness, the tendency to suicide, a weak memory and burning pain in all the body t h a t become aggravated in quiet and at night of Arsenicum alb. Emotional hypersensitivity, yearning of quiet and solitude, bad effects from emotional shock, and in children the need to take hold of the clothes of near-by people for fear of falling down of Gelsemium; the great loquacity with fear of being poisoned and refusal to take medicines, the profound sadness, the delusion of being under some superhuman power and the mystic delirium of Lachesis; the irritable character with tendency to continuous wailing, religious melancholia, egocentricity, the lack of interest in and :loathing of life of Sulphur, with patient clothing himself with rags and imagining he wears the finest apparel, with delirium grandiosum, etc., etc. This brief outline shows that in every prescription made in accordance with the principles established by the great Founder, a true psychosomatic therapeutics is instituted. CONCLUSIONS
l s t . - - T h e eminent Fomlder of Homceopathy, Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann, must be regarded as one of the precursors of modern psychosomatic medicine.
76
THE
BRITISH
I-IOM(EOrATHI(~
JOURNAL
2nd.--Homceopathic Materia Medica, based on pure proving on healthy man, is the only one in all medical schools that in the pharmacodynamic action of each medicament has a most extensive symptomatology, both somatic and psychic, both these factors keeping a reciprocal and close relation, and therefore we should adscribe to the Founder of Homoeopathic Medical Science the merit and the glory of establishing, more than a century ago, "Psychopharmaeology", which according to Dr. Sz~kely, the Founder of Freud Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina, constitutes at present, 1950, a new and most important orientation for Therapeutics in the Traditional School and 3rd.--For a truly correct homceopathic prescription, it is essential to find the simillimum between both the psychic and the somatic symptoms of the patient and the psychic and the somatic symptoms of the remedy, in order to obtain a curative response that will as always confirm the immutable truth of the law of Similia Similibus Curentur.