The 6th edition of the Organon was completed in 1842 when Hahnemann was 87 years old, and is the fruit of his lifelong experiments. On February 20, 1842, he wrote a letter to Baron von Boenninghausen to announce the completion of his new work:
“I have now, after 18 months of work, finished the sixth edition of my Organon, the most nearly perfect of all.”
Hahnemann planned for the printing of this final work, but unfortunately, problems arose with his publishers. For this reason, the 6th edition was not published before he died on July 2, 1843. It would take more than 80 years before his masterpiece was rescued from obscurity and presented to the homoeopathic community. It is recorded on page 74 of Boenninghausen’s Lesser Writings that Hahnemann had shared the new LM potency with the Baron:
“In the new edition of the Organon, improved and completed by Hahnemann himself, a new simplified procedure for the potentizing of medicine will be taught, which has considerable advantages over the former and yields a preparation as to the efficiency of which I can, from my own experience, give full praise.”
Boenninghausen’s contribution to homoeopathy is vast, as he gave us the first complete homoeopathic repertories and the relationship of remedies. Since the Baron stated that he was speaking from his “own experience,” it shows that he too had tested the LM remedies.
The ten years between the writing of the 5th and 6th Organon were the most productive of Samuel Hahnemann’s long career. The homoeopathy of the 1840’s is based on the use of the C and LM remedies in medicinal solution, and the repetition of the split dose when necessary. One of his first LM cases was started in 1840 with Sulphur 0/10, causing a strong aggravation that was treated with placebos for some time. In the beginning, Hahnemann tried to move downward from 0/10 to 0/9, 0/8, etc., as he had done with his lower potency C’s (30C, 24C, 18C, 12C, and 6C). He soon found that the new LM remedies were very high potencies, more similar to the high potency C’s than to the low potencies. So he changed his practice and started with the lowest degrees like 0/1, 0/2, 0/3, then moving upward through the scale. By the year 1843, he began most of his LM cases between 0/1 and 0/3, although occasionally he would start at 0/4, 0/5, 0/6, etc., depending on circumstances. He often alternated a placebo with his remedies at various intervals, or followed a series of doses with placebos. The idea that he used the daily dose for weeks, months, or years in Paris is a complete myth.
The following is a redaction of a Paris case dated January 14, 1843, just six months before Hahnemann left for his Heavenly Abode. With this client, he used the C and LM potencies in medicinal solution at different times during the case. This case was sent by letter to Boenninghausen and is recorded on page 192 of the Baron’s Lesser Writings:
“O-t, an actor, 33 years old, married. 14 January, 1843. For several years he had been frequently subject to sore throats as also now for a month past. The previous sore throat had lasted six weeks. On swallowing his saliva, a pricking sensation, feeling of contraction and excoriation. When he does not have the sore throat he suffers from a pressure in the anus, with violent excoriating pains, the anus is then inflamed, swollen and constricted; it is only with great effort that he can pass his stool, then the swollen hemorrhoidal vessels protrude.”
On January 15, Hahnemann gave one pill of Belladonna 30C in a 7 tablespoon medicinal solution that was succussed just prior to administration. One tablespoon was then taken and stirred in a glass of water. The exact number of succussions and the dosage given to the patient is not noted. By the next day, the sore throat was gone, but the old rectal affection had resurfaced as an anal fissure. Under questioning, the actor confessed that he had contracted syphilis eight years earlier that was treated with caustics. This confirmed that the doctor was treating a case of active secondary syphilis. He then administered Belladonna’s anti-syphilitic complement, Mercurius Vivus, LM 0/1:
“Merc. Viv., one globule of the lowest new dynamization (which contains a vastly smaller amount of matter than the usual kind), prepared in the same manner, and to be taken in the same as the Belladonna (the bottle being shaken each time), one spoonful in a tumblerful of water well stirred.”
The Founder then repeated the dose of Mercurius Vivus LM 0/1 and later LM0/2 until January 30, when the throat became inflamed again. He then used a placebo for seven days until February 7. By then, the anus was better but the sore throat was still lingering. He then realized that Psora was interfering with his anti-syphilitic remedy, as he warned about such things in the Chronic Diseases. Hahnemann then used his cardinal anti-psoric remedy Sulphur LM0/2 as a chronic intercurrent, and repeated the dose until February 13.
During this period, the client developed clear Mercury symptoms, like ulcerative pains in the throat and profuse saliva. So, on February 13, he was again given Mercurius Vivus LM 0/2. The Sulphur had removed the obstructive layer of Psora and suppression, allowing the syphilitic symptoms to surface. By the February 20, the sore throat was completely gone and the anus once again became inflamed and hemorrhoidal. The Founder now used placebo for 13 days! So much for the myth of the daily dose of the LM potency.
On the 3rd of March, the sore throat was gone, but the patient experienced blind piles that protruded at stool-though the pains were much better than before. Hahnemann then prescribed Nitricum Acidum by olfaction (potency unknown). The patient was given milk sugar in medicinal solution as a placebo, to keep him under control. According to the Founder’s notes, “He remained perfectly cured.” Thus, after first giving Belladonna 30C as an acute remedy, Hahnemann used three anti-miasmatic remedies in three months, Mercurius Vivus and Sulphur in LM potencies, and Nitricum Acidum by olfaction.
In the LM period [1840-1843], Hahnemann occasionally used alternations or an acute and chronic intercurrent under special circumstances. An interesting example is the case of Madame Gardy, 44 years old, who was seen on April 18, 1842. [A case from the author’s collection of microfiches obtained from the Robert Bosch Institute, Germany.] She suffered from womb problems since a childbirth 19 years prior that was treated with a variety of suppressive treatments. This complex chronic state was then complicated further by a crisis caused by cerebral fevers. Hahnemann began this case with an alternation of Aconite 30C and Sulphur LM 0/5 in medicinal solution. Note that this is an alternation of two remedies as well as the C and LM potency systems. In our research, we are keeping an eye out for these unusual cases, in which Hahnemann used alternations and acute and chronic intercurrents to complement his constitutional treatment. In this way, some of the more promising techniques he utilized may be tested in clinical trials and updated, if found effective.
The C and LM potencies in medicinal solution greatly expanded the therapeutic horizons of classical homoeopathy when compared with the 4th Organon techniques. The high C potencies (200C, 1M, 10M, and above) must be used with great caution in cases where there are special sensitivities or too much tissue pathology. In many serious diseases, the lower C potencies are not deep enough to cure, while the higher C potencies only produce unproductive aggravations. This is one of the times the LM potency may be a lifesaver.
When the C potencies are used in the split-dose of the medicinal solutions, they act more like the LM potencies-yet each pharmaceutical method retains its individual character. In the Paris casebooks, Hahnemann tended to use his C’s in crisis and acute conditions, and his LM’s for chronic degenerative disorders and chronic miasms. This tendency, however, was neither absolute nor exclusive.
Samuel Hahnemann worked for 50 years to perfect his new healing art. The final definitive years were 1840 to 1843, the period in which he created the 6th Organon. Unfortunately, the Paris period is being misrepresented by a number of so-called reformers of our healing art. They speak as if the Paris casebooks contain some revelation that sweeps away all the cardinal principles of homoeopathy. They use polypharmacy terms like “dual remedies” or “combinations” to describe the Founder’s use of alternations or a series of remedies, and claim he always gave the daily dose. “Hahnemann, Hahnemann, Hahnemann,” they cry, while in truth they use rapid changes of remedies, or combinations chosen by etiologies or disease names. In this way, they confuse new students as well as old practitioners that are only familiar with the methods of the 4th Organon.
The 1840-1843 Paris casebooks and the 6th edition of the Organon contain the seeds of the best of contemporary homoeopathy, and much, much more. Those trained in the 4th Organon are the best prepared to test the hypotheses of the Paris methods in the clinic. Without this solid foundation, it is almost impossible to understand the sophisticated posology techniques and case management procedures of the 1840’s. Why allow our heritage to be misrepresented and abused by the pretenders? Hahnemann’s advanced methods require more knowledge and experience of classical homoeopathy, not less. Homoeopaths, Dare to know!
David Little resides in India with his wife and children where he runs Homoeopathic Online Education [HOE], a cyberspace academy on the worldwide web. He is a prolific contributor to Jon Haworth’s homeopathy list on the internet, at: http://www. lyghtforce. com/homeo. html, and carries out a large personal correspondence by email. If you have any questions about this article and the use of the C and LM potency in the medicinal solution, please feel free to contact David by email at: litledel2. vsnl. net. in. Visit David’s website at: http://www. simillimum. com for more information on the Homoeopathic Gestalt and the life and works of Samuel Hahnemann and other great homoeopaths.