Table Of ContentMicrodoses
Megaresults
Clinical Cases
A selection from
50 years of Homoeopathic Practice
Prof. Dr. Diwan Harish Chand
National Homoeopathic Pharmacy
New Delhi
© National Homoeopathic Pharmacy 1995
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This work is dedicated to my patients
to whom I have dedicated my life's work
and
presented to the profession in the hope
that it will be absorbed into the growing
body of knowledge thai constitutes the
tradition of the Medical System of Homoeopathy
not only for the Homoeopathic doctors of the
present time but also for the generations
yet unborn who will continue to embody
the teachings of Hahnemann in
the service of Humanity.
Preface
The physician's high and only mission is the rapid,
gentle and permanent restoration of health, to cure
as it is termed.
— Extract of Aphorism 1 and 2 of Organon
of Medicine by Samuel Hahnemann.
I always pray that this lofty therapeutic ideal of the
Master be the motto in my work. A random selection of
clinical cases from a practice of half a century is being
presented in this book, "Microdoses Megaresults".
During this long period there has been opportunity
of long follow up and of observing two, three and some-
times even four generations of a family. As the records
have been kept meticulously, this gives an excellent
feedback to observing the evolution of ailments, the
effect of treatment, particularly in regard to a long term
miasmatic study. This also applies to inherited tenden-
cies when many members of a family and many genera-
tions in that family have been treated.
Case taking and the consequent methods of prescrib-
ing differ not only from person to person, but I have
come to realise that they can also differ from country to
country. The general level of education, social customs
and the general national characteristics may also to a
varying extent modify this. We are all taught and fully
realise the great importance of what are loosely termed
'Mental Symptoms' but are more appropriately termed
'Symptoms of the Mind'. However, early in my practice
I found difficulty in getting many such symptoitis from
patients in India as compared to those of Europe and
America. There is also a difference between the urban
and rural folks, and between the highly educated and
(i)
those with very little or no education at all. Also be-
tween the affluent and the poor. If I may use one of my
old expressions it is those that are highly educated, more
likely urbanites, that are 'fed more on poetry than on
porridge' that will have more symptoms of the mind. But
in India, and iii general in all Asian societies, there has
to be a considerable guess-work because by and large
these societies lay great stress on puritan behaviour,
ethics and high moral values. Therefore, the patients
open up far less and do not disclose their satanic
thoughts and behaviour, their history of STD and other
misdeeds — past or present. This would be so even for
young males but certainly far more for women, espe-
cially in the younger age group. Many of them hesitate
even to give out some of the physical symptoms con-
nected with menstruation and leucorrheal discharges. To
ask them about their emotions, their moments of grief,
disappointments of love etc. is almost impossible. These
histories are thus in sharp contrast to the histories I get
from American and most European patients.
Perhaps because of such variation in the problems
and the life style in the developed countries, the his-
tories have a plethora of symptoms of the mind. I some-
times get an impression that the homoeopaths in those
countries are carried away too much by the symptoms of
the "Upper Storey" as it were, and maybe rely excessive-
ly on the symptoms of the mind. It is to be remembered
that particulars with well-marked modalities that con-
form to the definition of a complete symptom, i.e., loca-
tion, sensation, modalities and what are termed
accompanying symptoms, may rule out a number of
poorly marked and weak generals.
Watching the practice of other senior homoeopaths
and from my own experience I can confirm that the use
of such well qualified 'particulars' often leads to equally
successful cures.
Many of the masters have expressed similar views
and some of these are quoted below:
Boenninghausen, a favourite and most intimate dis-
ciple of Hahnemann, asserts that so much emphasis
should not be given on mental symptoms as patients
sometimes are not able to interpret their mental
symptoms precisely, e.g. anxiety can be mistaken for fear
or palpitation and so on. Also in a case of an uncon-
scious patient or an infant it is not possible to collect
mental symptoms associated with the particular com-
plaint.
Of course, I think, in the case of an infant the obser-
vations of the mother and the physician can give some or
many mental symptoms.
Also Dr. Constantine Hering advocated that three
things should form the basis of prescribing, i.e., location,
sensation and modalities, which is popularly known as
Hering's three legged stool._
And more recently Dr. Elizabeth Wright Hubbard
wrote that, "It behoves us, therefore, even the strictest
Hahnemannians among us, to give the pathological
symptoms their due".
My teacher Sir John Weir has written, "... later one
appreciated the value of symptoms — the mentals and
generals first, then the particulars, especially the
peculiar and striking. If these latter are marked, they are
almost of equal value to generals." (Brit. Horn. Jour.
1950, p. 223)
I have also some comments on important physical
generals. In my early training at the London Homoeo-
pathic Hospital I was told that Dr. Gibson Miller would
use the temperature modality as an eliminating rubric.
(iii)
In fact we were handed his own chart of "Hot and Cold
Remedies". During the years of practice it was often felt
that this modality was not as important as it was made
out to be and if th$ other symptoms corresponded then
this modality could be ignored. In fact, a feeling has
grown that since as many of the provings have been done
in colder countries, the chilly remedies are far too many
and the hot remedies are comparatively much less.
There is a preponderence of hot patients in the extra
warm tropical and equatorial regions. Using this method
becomes a handicap as its cuts out the remedy/remedies
covering very well the rest of the symptoms including
mentals.
It has always been held that medicine, specially
homoeopathy, is both a science and an art and the suc-
cess of the physician depends on a blend of the two. This
is certainly very true of the holistic systems of treatment.
As such, within the classical mould of the practice of
homoeopathy some different methods may be used in
evaluating the symptoms for prescribing. The cases
presented portray some of these methods.
Some prescriptions have been based entirely on
mentals and yet again sometimes only on particulars or
even single peculiar symptoms; and rarely even on the
background pathology. Some are based on the expe-
rience of my teachers, and on my own experience on
partially proved and rarely used medicines.
This variance comes not because the teaching of the
masters is unclear about the Evaluation and Grading of
symptoms, it comes from contact with patients from all
continents and many countries and similar contacts with
colleagues from all over the world.
(iv)
Success has been attained by the u£e of high poten-
cies, medium potencies and even, on occasion, mother
tinctures.
There are two ways of reporting clinical work — the
statistical and the anecdotal. The holistic systems of
treatment that have an individualistic approach obvious-
ly do not ideally render themselves to statistical analysis.
When each patient is treated as an individual even
though having the same nosological diagnosis, it can't be
subjected to statistics in the usual way. At best it can be
said that so many patients of such and such a disease
were successfully - treated by a certain system of
medicine. In keeping "with that background, the report-
ing in this compilation is of the anecdotal type.
I may herein also mention that the records have not
been initially maintained separately for different disease
conditions and not fully indexed in that manner. There-
fore, barring some exceptions, no long series of a par^
ticular ailment has been attempted. Very often a case
history has been dug up only when the patient or a rela-
tion or a friend of the patient has come subsequently
and mentioned about the case who had been successfully
treated sometimes 20, 30 or 40 years earlier and has
been well since then. At times, the patient is suffering
from a condition which was successfully treated in one of
his relatives and that is the reason for his referral and
the reason that prompts him to seek my treatment.
It is said that many homoeopaths have not left
records of cases considering that one such example may
not be applicable to another case o| tht same disease.
This applies to Hahnemann himself and we have ac-
count of very few cases treated by him. However, during
my travels through many countries where I lectured I
found the audiences particularly receptive and even
(v)
