– BENERJEE.P,

Suppression 

I will now speak of suppression-that blessed method of treatment that turns the disease-force inward and creates more complex and difficult diseases one after another. If you understand suppression, you will be able to avoid them with caution and thus avoid quite a lot of unnecessary sufferings to the patient and troubles to yourself.
 1. Of all the methods of suppression, the most common and yet the most dangerous is that by external application of ointment. It has already been made clear that all itches etc. on the skin, which appear to the unintelligent eye as mere local diseases independent of the man, are but Psora reflected on the external body. They are not independent of the whole man but are conditions of the whole man expressed in those particular forms in those particular localities. It is therefore, extremely silly to treat them as independent units and to drive them from their seats. It is, of course, a fact that they will quickly disappear from the skin under the use of ointment etc., but only to locate elsewhere, because the disease is of the whole man, and local treatment can only improve the “locality”, and not the whole man. It has already been stated that people know and well understand the bad consequences of suppressed measles or pox, but they do not admit that the suppression of itches can also result in similar disastrous consequences. The fact is that in the case of measles or pox, the disaster ensues so quickly that they can at once ascribe it to the suppression, while in the case of itches, it becomes difficult for them to ascribe it to the suppression, because it appears long after that suppression. But the law is ever uniform. If suppression of one disease brings disaster, the suppression of all other diseases also will do the same thing. If you doubt this, clear up your doubts by studious observation. You will find that, there can be no breach in the law of uniformity of Nature. There is no cure from the local use of ointment etc. Such local treatment only prepares the way for other diseases. The local affection may disappear under local treatment, but the disappearance of the local affection is not the disappearance of the disease, because the disease is of the man and not of the locality. Such local treatment therefore necessarily brings in a hundred other diseases in other localities. All other systems of medicine than Homœopathy only care to remove the local appearance of the disease. They consider each disease to be a separate unit, independent of the personality of the patient, and they necessarily aim at patching up the diseased part. But as this is in no way a total annihilation of the disease-force, that is to say, as this is in no way a complete restoration of the man to his normal state of health, other affections appear in other parts of the body. They remove the itch, but colic appears, and this colic is at once explained as quite a different disease, and a similar process of scientific(?) treatment for it is recommended. This colic is then suppressed again, and then comes quite a third thing and so on, until insanity or death closes the scene. A young boy had eczema on his leg, which was patched up by external application of ointment. The boy gradually (in 3 or 4 months) developed a terrible dyspepsia with weakness, both physical and mental. The condition of the stomach became so bad at last that he used to pass undigested solid foods with his stool. He was then treated with injection but all for nothing. When, however, the patient was brought to me, I gave him a dose of Psorinum 1000, and this brought out the suppressed eczema in a few days, and the inveterate dyspepsia that was implanted on the boy by the suppression of this eczema gradually disappeared, as also the eczema. There are innumerable such records of suppression of skin diseases by external ointment, resulting in most serious diseases, and subsequent cure of the latter as also of the former under the action of deep acting Homœopathic medicines. The disappearance of the resultant disease under the action of the Homœopathic medicine and that of the suppressed skin disease, after its re-appearance in its original form, should leave no room for questioning the disastrous effects of suppression-the disasters of considering and treating disease as a mere local something independent of the man.

 Not only does the suppression of itches-the external manifestation of Psora-bring such tremendous mischief to the man, but also, similar or even greater mischief is brought on to him by suppression of gonorrhœa and chancre-the external manifestations of Sycosis and Syphilis. He contracts gonorrhœa from a prostitute and is anxious to be rid of the manifestation in the shape of the discharge, and it is done quickly and quietly enough with a few injections. Syphilis is also treated in the same ruthless manner. But the merest removal of the local manifestation of the discharge or the chancre is never equivalent to an eradication of the virus. It gradually permeates the whole man and implants the respective miasms of Sycosis and Syphilis on the economy, and these miasms then travel down from the father to the son and so on, growing more insidious at every succeeding generation, till at last insanity and leprosy honour the victim. The above is only a brief picture of the suppression of the most primary manifestations of the three miasms, Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis, but the trouble does not end here, because the diseases that result from these suppressions are also suppressed in their turn in the same ruthless fashion, and so on till eternity. I have only given you an idea of what happens as a result of suppression. I am afraid, the ablest author on earth will fail to give you an exhaustive description of the total mischief that ensues from it.

 Again, besides the suppression of the primary manifestations of the miasms and of the manifestations that appear on the suppression of those primary manifestations, there is a third type of suppression, and the effects of these are more dangerous still. It is the suppression of the manifestations of two or more miasms in combination. There is no limit to the varieties of diseases they create. This will be dealt with in details later on, as it is an indispensable equipment for successful treatment of chronic diseases.
 2. Besides suppression by ointment, diseases are often suppressed by indiscreet use of the surgeon’s lancet. Surgical instruments have their scope of use; a mechanical way of treatment as it is, it should be resorted to only in local affections of a mechanical nature. It has absolutely no use in cases where the whole man, the whole system, is concerned. As soon as the disease in hand is such as indicates an abnormality in the systemic processes, it ceases to be a case for surgery, because unless you correct the systemic processes, the removal of the disease-product will be the only thing accomplished, while the processes at fault will continue to do their work-if not there on the same place, certainly, in some other. If you remove a tumour of the lid, which is the pathological product of a long course of some sort of abnormal functioning of the system, you only remove the product, without correcting the process at fault, and the result will be that the same defective process will continue, and as such, the product also will continue to be formed. This product may not now be in the same spot and in the same form, but in some other region of the body in some other form, as the opposition offered at its original site will naturally give it a tendency to follow the line of least resistance. Indiscreet manual surgery also suppresses and gives an inward turn to the disease force, just as suppression by ointment does.

 It is, however, to be recognised that surgery has its own sphere of use, and that sphere is the sphere of local affections. Suppose, for example, you break your knee. Now, here is a case in which the system is not evidently responsible in any way. The break could not be the result of the liver or the kidney not performing their functions, and here you cannot, therefore, repair the damage by the use of internal medicine. It is purely a local affection independent of the man, and it has, therefore, to be treated locally by the surgeon’s knife. It is, however, to be remembered that in cases of this nature also, internal use of Homœopathic medicines is also indispensable, when the malady becomes a condition of the man in his entirety, that is to say, when the damage is not completely repaired owing to the system being at fault and as such being unable to recover from the effects of the local damage in spite of proper local treatment. Every man does not recover from the effect of a broken knee equally quickly. And if it is so, and if one man is having an unusually delayed recovery, it is the man himself (i.e.  his system) who is responsible, and in such cases, the use of internal medicine is unavoidable. From the above, it must be clear to you that it is necessary to discriminate carefully and correctly between a case for surgery and a case for medicinal treatment;-not only this, but also to avoid indiscriminate use of surgical instruments in real cases for medicinal treatment, as in that case, suppression of the disease manifestation and not a cure of the man will result and this will give the disease an inward turn.

 3. A third type of suppression results from the use of strong chemicals, like quinine and arsenic etc., in material doses. This is also a very common type of suppression, and ought to be understood even by the simplest layman. The enlargement of spleen and liver and a hundred other things that follow the suppression of fever by those drugs is a daily affair in our times.

 4. Now the question arises, whether Homœopathic medicines can ever suppress diseases instead of curing them. The reply to this, however, depends on what you understand by the expression Homœopathic medicines. If it means medicines applied strictly according to the laws of cure-(1) the law of similarity, (2) the law of potentisation and (3) the law regarding the use of only one medicine unmixed at a time,-as it ought to mean, suppression is impossible. If, however, Homœopathic medicine is only taken to mean a colourless and odourless drop from a Homœopath’s medicine chest, and prescribed by a Homœopath without regard to the laws detailed above, there may be as bad suppression from Homœopathic medicines as from the methods described above, as in such cases there is no Homœopathicity between the medicine and the case, and as such the application of the medicine is unhomœopathic here. If there is only a partial similarity between the medicine selected and the case in hand, the symptoms covered by the medicine may be removed, but a removal of the symptoms is not necessarily cure. True cure consists in a restoration of the patient to his normal health, and the automatic disappearance of the disease symptoms in such a case only is “cure”. If this does not happen, it is to be understood that only the manifestations in the shape of the symptoms have disappeared while the patient is continuing ill yet. One thing is, however, to be noted here, namely, that in a case of Homœopathic suppression, that is to say, in a case of suppression due to the unhomœopathic use of Homœopathic medicines, the mischief is generally far less than in the other forms of suppression, as in such suppressions, the disease force is not always given an inward turn. All that happens is that the patient is not completely cured, and as such, the disease force is allowed to continue to work. If, however, we want to pass as Homœopaths, we must make it a point that even this type of suppression, though it is the least harmful of the several types, does not take place in our hands, because as Homœopaths our business ought to be to cure the sick.

 The above is, however, by no means an exhaustive statement of the various methods of suppression, as suppression results from any method that is unhomœopathic and short of curative, and let us, therefore, understand “cure” precisely as it is.

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-H.A.Roberts.

IN the dissertations on the vital energy we pointed out that it was this force which was the expression of life itself, and through its power of development and control in itself and by itself it maintains the harmonious working, the state of equilibrium, which is perfect health. There are external forces that have great influence in inhibiting its normal functioning. When the normal function is inhibited the immediate reaction is a lack of harmony and a warped and suppressed functioning of the vital force, so that disease conditions are produced with the attendant symptoms and irregular functions of the body.

Let us consider some of these external features that may thus suppress the normal functions of the vital force, and through the vital force the normal functioning of the body. Such conditions as shell-shock, fright, fear, excessive joy, intense unsatisfied longing for mate or offspring, unrequited love, grief from loss of family or friends, business apprehensions and worries, disappointed ambitions, extreme fatigue or exhaustion; all these forces have an influence upon the vital energy, and so warp and suppress its natural functioning that a train of symptoms is produced, varying in their manifestations, but each varying widely from the natural expressions of the vital energy. We often see cases where these suppressing emotions not only affect profoundly the single individual, but extend their influence to the next generation through the effect on a nursing mother.

The palliative effect of medicines in physiological form is a condition that we see over and over again, and we can observe the sequence of suppressive action, the results being first palliation and then suppression or an actual aggravation of the first condition. There are always the primary and secondary action as a result of physiological dosage, and we see it well expressed in Paragraph 59 of the *Organon, where Hahnemann says:

Such palliative antipathic remedies were never employed in allaying the prominent symptoms of protracted diseases, without being followed in a few hours by the contrary condition, i.e. the return of the evil, often seriously aggravated.

The paragraph continues, speaking of the use of opium in suppressing coughs, and the use of the same drug in diarrhoea, and coffee producing exhilaration, and other physiological primary effects in common practice; then he goes on to show the secondary effects as being but an aggravation of the first condition, or an entirely different group of symptoms of deeper significance.

The homoeopathic physician constantly comes across drug effects in physiological form which have suppressed the natural expression of diseases. The one thing we should always bear in mind and should hold as our aim is to allow the vital force to express itself in its own chosen way when it is deranged. It is only when it shows itself clearly and without interruption in its natural development that we get a clear picture of the diseased state, and the administration of physiological medicine at such times changes the whole picture, suppressing one symptom after another until there is no expression of the true condition of the patient.

The immediate effect of this method of treatment is a suppression but if persisted in and continued over a period of time it has the effect of driving the vital energy to express itself in some other form, and usually in deeper and more vital organ.

As an illustration, consider the use of opium and its derivatives for the suppression of coughs. If this treatment is continued for any length of time, instead of a cough we find the patient has become subject to a condition far more serious, for he has developed a chronic state of night cough; each time it is suppressed it is driven still deeper, and the patient soon develops fever, night sweats, and a general hectic condition. This may happen in simple coughs. It may happen in pneumonic coughs. The danger of this suppression is very great, as can easily be noticed, especially in pneumonias, where the least suppression is often fatal.

Likewise in diarrhoeas, the suppression of a diarrhoea will often produce constipation, then fever and a tendency to delirium. One who remembers the time when cholera infantum was so prevalent will remember also that many children who had received opium to stop diarrhoea (which it promptly did) developed the next day a hydrocephaloid state and succumbed to the ravages of opium rather than to the ravages of the disease. The present indiscriminate use of the salicylates and coal tar derivatives in rheumatic and allied states invariably sends the trouble to the central organs, especially to the heart.

The present-day advertising of proprietary articles for the relief of pain, such as aspirin, and the consequent indiscriminate use of such preparations is exceedingly harmful, for it suppresses once more the danger signal of pain, and it always covers the condition but never removes it, rendering it possible to appear in a much exaggerated and more dangerous manifestation in some other organ, or in a much more serious condition in the same organ.

Another form of suppression that is very frequently seen is the external application of drug preparations for the removal of skin manifestations, such as eczema. These skin manifestations can be removed by the external use of drug preparations. This, however, does not cure the diseased condition, and the chronic miasm that has been expressed through the skin manifestations is forced to hide his head, but it surely will still be present in the organism and express itself in some deeper and more vital part, nearer the centre of vitality. If this course of treatment is persistently continued and the condition continually suppressed, the patient becomes nearly impossible of cure. The danger from these suppressions is very great, for the longer they are suppressed the more likely they are to take on nervous and mental manifestations, striking at the very seat of life and reason, and there expressing itself.

Hahnemann’s *Organon, Paragraph 61, gives us the following:

Had physicians correctly observed and considered the deplorable results of the antipathic application of medicines, they would long ago have discovered the great truth, that the true method of performing permanent cures must be the exact counter-part of such antipathic treatment.

They would have perceived that, whenever the opposite or antipathic administration of medicine produced a brief period of alleviation, this would subside, only to be followed by one of aggravation and that is to say, the homoeopathic application of medicines according to their symptom-similitude would have brought about a lasting and perfect cure, provided that, instead of large quantities of medicines, the most minute doses had been employed. Notwithstanding the experience of many centuries, physicians did not recognize this great and salutary truth, they appear to have ignored entirely the results of treatment above described as well as the other fact, that no physician ever effected a permanent cure of an inveterate disease, unless some drug of predominant homoeopathic effect had been by chance embodied in his prescription nor were they able to comprehend that every rapid and perfect cure, accomplished by nature without the aid of human skill, was always produced by a similar disease coming to the one already present.

Another source of suppression is the attempt to suppress the natural secretions of the body, like the perspiration in the armpits and the perspiration of the feet, by the use of medicinal powders. This forbids the elimination of waste matter through the natural channels and this waste must be taken up in other parts of the body and the attempt made to eliminate them through these other channels. In this way much harm may be done, and while the local suppressions may be entirely successful, the constitutional manifestations are inimical to health.

Under the suppression of secretions we often find the suppression of the menses by cold baths, or the sudden suppression of sweat by plunging in for a cooling swim after exertion or in hot weather. Here too we find the resulting action on the vital force, with the disturbance taking on grave, or even dangerous, forms.

A frequent form of suppression in modern days is the removal of disturbing organs by surgical means, again forbidding the expression of the vital force through its chosen organs, where it has expressed itself in a diseased state of the tonsils, the teeth, the sinuses, or any other part of the economy. The particular disturbance is shown by the symptom picture of the patient. In removing the tonsils, the teeth, or other organs by surgical operation we are dealing with the end-product and not with the vital energy. We are cutting off the manifestations of disease and are doing nothing to set in order the vital energy or to prevent further disease manifestations. These diseased conditions have developed as an expression of the inward turmoil and distress under which the whole individual suffers.

These are but a few of the common suppressions caused by either physicians or laymen, or from circumstances, and but a few of the forms that are constantly met. It is the privilege of the homoeopathic physician to relieve these distressed conditions and to set the vital energy in order, thus enabling it to function properly.

No greater crime can be committed against the human economy than to aid and abet these suppressions, for these may be the direct cause of many constitutional diseases, and the symptoms are in their natural state always the expression of constitutional conditions. Suppression is the source of many functional disturbances.

The homoeopathic physician is the only physician who is equipped to deal with these conditions, for his province and the fundamental principle of his work is the proper co-ordination and normal functioning of the body, the mind and the spirit; and it is only when the three spheres of man co-ordinate to develop in their normal way that harmony and health can be maintained and preserved.

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