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Twenty years ago
154
THE
BRITISH
I-IOM(EOP~THIC
JOUI~NAL
been taken, then wait for results. As long as the case improves do not repeat the remedy. "Hoping this m a y aid you in finding a remedy for t h a t dear lady, and wishing you the very best of success, I am very sincerely and faithfully yours, George E. Dienst." How one wishes one could know the outcome!
Twenty years ago The British Homeeopathic Journal, July 1959 NOEL
J. PRATT,
~.R.c.s.,
L . R . C . P . , M.F.HOM.
I n his third Editorial, Dr. Ralph T w e n t y m a n discussed preventive medicine, especially in relation to acute anterior poliomyelitis, and the influence of fear. He maintained t h a t "certain diseases are associated with certain periods of history" and "represent the unsolved tasks of the age." Later on he wrote t h a t "some problems are not so much solved as outgrown" and "in the second half of l i f e . . , the meaning of life can no longer be in outer achievement but in inner completion and realization." H e also claimed t h a t " I f the prevention of illness is t o be undertaken, then it is an obligation to achieve culturally what would otherwise have been gained through overcoming illness"--a challenging statement. BUFO, the common toad, was the subject of a 12 page article by Dr. Otto Leeser, and Dr. Felix Mann described the three types of Bufo patients. Two case records followed these articles. Dr. Johanna Brieger wrote about 5-hydroxy-tryptamine, of which an immediate chemical precursor occurs in the "venom" of the toad. HYDROPHUS C Y A 1 W O C I I ~ C T U S , o n e of the sea snakes, was the subject of approving by Dr. J o h n Raeside; fourteen volunteers took part. The proving showed the similarity of the symptoms of the sea snake to those of poliomyelitis. He discussed also similarities to Lachesis and Lathyrus. LACHESIS WaS the subject of an article by Dr. Edward Whitmont, who emphasized, among other features, the symptoms of a paranoid nature. Dr. A. C. Gordon Ross reviewed a book, The Medical World of the Eighteenth Century, by Lester King, Professor of Physiology, published by the Chicago University Press. He devoted 34 pages to the subject of homoeopathy. (Hahnemann published in 1796 his "Essay on a !~ew Principle for Ascertaining
THE L]~GUI~III~OSAE
155
the Curative Properties of D r u g s " - - t h e first announcement of the basis of homceopathy). Professor King found "thirty-four good points in the s y s t e m " an astonishing number; but many of them were approvals of different aspects of the work of ttahnemann rather than the value of homceopathy. Among the approvals selected by Dr. Ross are "the criticisms that Hahnemann raised against current therapeutic procedures were quite valid", and "He pointed out that properties observed in the chemical phial are not the same as the properties in the body". And "To lay the base for rational therapeutics, Hahnemann recommended experimentation directly on humans, healthy humans." And finally, "He insisted on treating each patient as an individual, and strongly opposed the notion that a patient simply exemplified a disease." The correspondence pages contained five letters, two of which were prompted by Dr. Foubister's article in the previous issue of the JOUI~AL, "The Constitutional Effects of Anaesthetics": Dr. Ronald Livingstone reported a case of addiction to Chlorodyne cured b y Chloroform 30, and Dr. Strigner reported a patient complaining of depression, "never the same person after an operation under chloroform about 45 years previously"; Chloroform 30 cured her too.
The Leguminosae (cont.) WILHELM
PELIKAN
Toxalbumin-producingplants Abrus precatorius, Indian liquorice, jeqnirity, prayer beads A native of Further India, this is a small shrub, with a long root which tastes like liquorice. The leaves are paripinnate, and the flowers grow in long-stemmed spikes, producing hard bright red seeds marked with a black spot, so that they look rather like an inflamed eye. When freshly gathered, these contain a volatile oil and abrin, a toxic albumin which causes inflammation and thrombus formation, provokes purulent inflammation of the conjunctiva, and breaks down granulomata. The volatile oil confers a certain immunity Translation from the German of part two of the seventeenth chapter of the author's
Heilpflanzenkunde (botany of medicinal plants), Vol. 1; published with the kind permission of the author and of the publishers, Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum/Dornach, Switzerland, whose permission should be sought for reproduction. Translator- R. E. K. Meuss, FIL, Member of the Translators' Guild.
THE
BRITISH
I-IOM(EOP~THIC
JOUI~NAL
been taken, then wait for results. As long as the case improves do not repeat the remedy. "Hoping this m a y aid you in finding a remedy for t h a t dear lady, and wishing you the very best of success, I am very sincerely and faithfully yours, George E. Dienst." How one wishes one could know the outcome!
Twenty years ago The British Homeeopathic Journal, July 1959 NOEL
J. PRATT,
~.R.c.s.,
L . R . C . P . , M.F.HOM.
I n his third Editorial, Dr. Ralph T w e n t y m a n discussed preventive medicine, especially in relation to acute anterior poliomyelitis, and the influence of fear. He maintained t h a t "certain diseases are associated with certain periods of history" and "represent the unsolved tasks of the age." Later on he wrote t h a t "some problems are not so much solved as outgrown" and "in the second half of l i f e . . , the meaning of life can no longer be in outer achievement but in inner completion and realization." H e also claimed t h a t " I f the prevention of illness is t o be undertaken, then it is an obligation to achieve culturally what would otherwise have been gained through overcoming illness"--a challenging statement. BUFO, the common toad, was the subject of a 12 page article by Dr. Otto Leeser, and Dr. Felix Mann described the three types of Bufo patients. Two case records followed these articles. Dr. Johanna Brieger wrote about 5-hydroxy-tryptamine, of which an immediate chemical precursor occurs in the "venom" of the toad. HYDROPHUS C Y A 1 W O C I I ~ C T U S , o n e of the sea snakes, was the subject of approving by Dr. J o h n Raeside; fourteen volunteers took part. The proving showed the similarity of the symptoms of the sea snake to those of poliomyelitis. He discussed also similarities to Lachesis and Lathyrus. LACHESIS WaS the subject of an article by Dr. Edward Whitmont, who emphasized, among other features, the symptoms of a paranoid nature. Dr. A. C. Gordon Ross reviewed a book, The Medical World of the Eighteenth Century, by Lester King, Professor of Physiology, published by the Chicago University Press. He devoted 34 pages to the subject of homoeopathy. (Hahnemann published in 1796 his "Essay on a !~ew Principle for Ascertaining
THE L]~GUI~III~OSAE
155
the Curative Properties of D r u g s " - - t h e first announcement of the basis of homceopathy). Professor King found "thirty-four good points in the s y s t e m " an astonishing number; but many of them were approvals of different aspects of the work of ttahnemann rather than the value of homceopathy. Among the approvals selected by Dr. Ross are "the criticisms that Hahnemann raised against current therapeutic procedures were quite valid", and "He pointed out that properties observed in the chemical phial are not the same as the properties in the body". And "To lay the base for rational therapeutics, Hahnemann recommended experimentation directly on humans, healthy humans." And finally, "He insisted on treating each patient as an individual, and strongly opposed the notion that a patient simply exemplified a disease." The correspondence pages contained five letters, two of which were prompted by Dr. Foubister's article in the previous issue of the JOUI~AL, "The Constitutional Effects of Anaesthetics": Dr. Ronald Livingstone reported a case of addiction to Chlorodyne cured b y Chloroform 30, and Dr. Strigner reported a patient complaining of depression, "never the same person after an operation under chloroform about 45 years previously"; Chloroform 30 cured her too.
The Leguminosae (cont.) WILHELM
PELIKAN
Toxalbumin-producingplants Abrus precatorius, Indian liquorice, jeqnirity, prayer beads A native of Further India, this is a small shrub, with a long root which tastes like liquorice. The leaves are paripinnate, and the flowers grow in long-stemmed spikes, producing hard bright red seeds marked with a black spot, so that they look rather like an inflamed eye. When freshly gathered, these contain a volatile oil and abrin, a toxic albumin which causes inflammation and thrombus formation, provokes purulent inflammation of the conjunctiva, and breaks down granulomata. The volatile oil confers a certain immunity Translation from the German of part two of the seventeenth chapter of the author's
Heilpflanzenkunde (botany of medicinal plants), Vol. 1; published with the kind permission of the author and of the publishers, Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum/Dornach, Switzerland, whose permission should be sought for reproduction. Translator- R. E. K. Meuss, FIL, Member of the Translators' Guild.