– BENERJEE.P,
Mental restlessness; finds pleasure in nothing; always wants to be here and there; headache; palpitation; pricking pain in the liver; itching of the body while in bed; has an offensive perspiration.
From the above you will see that some of the symptoms i.e. , the first three are purely mental symptoms; the next few are more or less physical. If however, after the administration of your medicine, these physical symptoms disappear first without there being any improvement of the mental symptoms, then it must be understood that true cure has not set in. If it was true cure, that is to say, if your medicine was really homœopathic to the case, if there was homœopathicity between the medicine and the case, the patient would first of all have been rid of the mental restlessness, would find pleasure in this and that, and would not be anxious for going hither and thither, The first essential indication of true cure is, that improvement must appear in the mind first of all.
The second thing about true cure is, that the improvement of the mental condition must be felt by the patient himself. It may of course happen, that the itching eruption for which the patient came to you, is yet what it was, or is even worse, but if the patient is feeling better mentally, is feeling an internal ease in spite of the eruptions remaining as they were, or in spite of an aggravation of them, it must be understood that the patient is really on his way to cure, though ordinary people may seem to think, on account of those eruptions, that the patient is worse. True cure is first felt by the patient in the mind. He feels an internal ease and comfort, and if the physician can perceive that this has been the case after the administration of his medicine, he is safe to conclude that his medicine has been homœopathic to the case and that true cure is coming.
The third thing in a case of true cure, is the gradual improvement of the physical symptoms; and in this improvement of the physical symptoms too, the process is the same-from the centre to the circumference,-that is to say, from the internal to the external, from the brain, heart and lung to the skin. The main thing is, that the patient will be corrected first in his innermost being, and the innermost having been brought to order, the outermost will be necessarily made normal, because the external is only a reflection of the internal. The external has been made as it is, by the internal. And if the internal is made to be in health, the external is bound to be.
It has been made clear before, how by suppression, which is ever unhomœopathic, the disease force is turned inward instead of being turned out, and how chronic diseases are thus implanted upon the economy. This must at once suggest that the process of disease is from the circumference to the centre. And as a matter of fact, disease always runs from the circumference to the centre, from the less important to the more important organs, and the process of cure must, therefore, be the reverse of this-from the centre to the circumference.
One very important fact has to be cleared up here. It has been stated somewhere in course of our discussion, that disease begins in the mind and then it comes to be expressed in the body, which is equivalent to saying that the process of disease is from the centre to the circumference, while it is being stated now, that the course of disease is from the circumference to the centre. This is contradiction on the face of it,-you must say. But let me add that, it is not contradiction. What exactly is meant by these apparently contradictory statements is, that the origin of disease is in the mind, and as such, its process is from the centre to the circumference; but when, once the disease has been expressed in the body (having originated from the mind), the process of this concrete manifestation is from the body to the mind, i.e. from the circumference to the centre. A cursory discussion of this was made while explaining the miasms of Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis. It must therefore be clearly understood, that by saying that the process of disease is from the circumference to the centre the process of concrete manifestation is meant, while by the other statement is meant the process by which the first concrete manifestation is brought into being. The chronic diseases are the developments of the first concrete manifestations (whic have originated from the mind), and as such, their course is from the circumference to the centre. A syphilitic chancre begins in the genital organ, a most external part of the body, (but its idealistic origin is in the mind, because unless there was evil thinking, there could have been no evil action and as such no contamination with a syphilitic woman), but it gradually attacks the more internal organs, the mucus membrane, the bone and at last the mind, causing a tendency for suicide. The process here, is from the circumference to the centre. And cure will be from the centre to the circumference-quite an opposite process. In case of correct Homœopathic treatment of such a case, the tendency for suicide must disappear first, and the improvement of the bone and the mucus membrane will set in subsequently. If this be the process, it is a process of cure. A mere improvement of the mental symptoms first is not a sufficient indication for cure. In order that this mental improvement may be an indication of cure, the improvement must flow outward to the surface. If in a case of heart disease, the heart is relieved at once after the administration of your medicine, and rheumatic symptoms appear, it is to be understood that it is cure that is coming, because the course here is from the internal to the external. But, if on the contrary, in a case of rheumatism the pain in the knee disappears and a pain in the heart developes simultaneously, it is not a course of cure, as, it is from the external to the internal. In it, the disorder is being driven in. The process of cure must be from the centre to the circumference-the reverse of the process of disease, which is from the circumference to the centre. If in a case of measles the eruptions recede under a course of treatment and if dysentery comes in, take it that there has been no correct Homœopathic treatment. The Allopathic physician would however boast of the disappearance of the measles and explain the subsequent dysentery as a sequelœ-as if dysentery is bound to come after measles. But this is far from that. There is no dysentery inherent in measles; the dysentery has come only as a result of bad treatment. In this case, the measles has only been transformed into dysentery, by bad, unscientific and unhomœopathic treatment. There has been no true cure of measles. The measles-certain group of symptoms only-has disappeared and a new group “dysentery” has appeared. In a case of correct treatment, that is to say, in correct homœopathic treatment, which is curative, there can be no sequelœ after any disease. It is true of measles and of all other acute diseases, and it is equally true of all chronic diseases too. A transformation of one disease into another is always due to unhomœopathic treatment, and as such it is the result of no cure.
I have never cured a case of heart disease without appearance of some rheumatic or skin troubles, and whenever such rheumatic or skin troubles have appeared the patients have always felt better in their hearts proportionately to the skin and rheumatic affections that have appeared. If you remember that the process of cure is always like this-from the centre to the circumference, from the more internal to the external, and if you find that exactly the same thing is happening in your patient’s case, you will be able to make sure that it is true cure that is coming, and as such you will be in a position to cheer up your patient, as also to avoid the risk of changing your prescription too quickly.
We have understood by now what disease is, what the process of cure is and the symptoms by which such cure is indicated. Let us now take up the method of treating chronic diseases. How the patient is to be examined, how a record is to be prepared and prescription made, and how the action of the medicine prescribed is to be watched and subsequent prescription, if any, to be made, are subjects that must be gone into very thoroughly, in order to be properly equipped for the treatment of chronic cases.
The first and the foremost, indication of an approaching cure is the beginning of improvement in the mind of the patient it and its gradual manifestation in the body. If the patient feels better in the mind first, and if he feels better physically afterwards, it is to be understood that the action of the medicine is Homœopathic. Suppose, in a given case, the symptoms recorded are:-
Let us suppose that a Homœopathic medicine has been correctly selected strictly according to the laws of cure and administered in a given case. Now, what would be the symptoms, by which we could judge that the medicine has been acting and that true cure is coming on as a result of that? It has already been stated that, in any case cure can be anticipated with exactitude, if the medicine is correctly Homœopathic to it. Let us now see what symptoms and what indications will help us to anticipate our cure and enable us to judge whether the medicine is acting towards a cure or towards a mere disappearance of the disease symptoms.