Objetivo general

In one sense ihis title is a profoundly unhomoeopathic one. but like many mistaken things it provides an opportunity to clarify a prevalent misunderstanding. The use of the law of similars is. like that of all true laws, cooperative with nature, a means to helping the whole man. Many people, both professional and lay. think that homoeopathy 'cures' or abolishes or acts upon single symptoms. This would be a strictly unhomoeopathic procedure and purely a palliative one. which orthodox medicine regularly employs, mostly according to the law of contraries. The law of similars takes account of the biological element in man. the susceptibility and reactive power of a living organism, as opposed to chemical reactions in a test-tube or laboratory. The totality of symptoms, expressing the individual patient's need for a specific remedial substance, is different from one or two symptoms. Only on a totality can curative prescribing be done.

The homoeopathic materia medica does contain remedies which act as pain killers, but never in the sense of dulling the patient's consciousness of pain, as do sedative or physiologically analgesic drugs. We all know that Hepar Sulph. relieves the excruciating hypersensitivity of a throbbing felon, if the modalities of Hepar are present: that Aconite, Coffea, Platina or Verbascum help neuralgia; that Colocvnth or Magnesia Phos. will abate intestinal colic; that Belladonna or Lyco- podium can ease renal colic, and that Chelidonium. Dioscorea or Nux Vomica allay the agony of gall stones when, and only when, the symptoms agree.

The only proper answer to the question. 'What remedies relieve pain and muscle spasm in arthritis?', is 'The indicated remedy". It is not my purpose here to show how one may arrive at the most similar and hence indicated remedy. In chronic arthritis the constitutional remedy may be the best. In certain instances a nosode may be the opening gambit: Medorrhinum. if it is sub-acute, in the thick-set. robust, hurried, worried patients who suffer all day, can sleep all night, and are relieved by ice: or Tuberculinum. if there is great rigidity, even in sleep, aggravation after excertion. desire for change and novelty (even in their doctors), a family history of Tuberculosis, love of wind, craving for smoked things and the

other symptoms peculiar to that remedy. In advanced cases where there has been a succession of remedies, such as cortisone, one may have to start with Sulphur or Nux Vomica, preferably in the 30c potency, to clear the field. Whatever remedies the patient has been taking must be stopped. If he cannot be persuaded to have fortitude, one can tem- porarily use a different anodyne.

The remedies most frequently useful for arthritic pain and muscle spasm are a somewhat unusual and surprising list. In incipient or early chronic arthritis, the statistics of my practice have shown that Natrum Muriaticum leads the list. This is interesting from many viewpoints. Arthritis is a disease characterized by looking backward, as well as rigidity, frustration and resentment. Lot's wife, you recall, looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt! I have found the second most frequent remedy in early arthritis to be Sulphur. Perhaps the third remedy in frequency is Rhus Toxicodendron, characterized by its fourfold modality: worse on lirst motion, relieved by motion after it gets going, until tired, when it is again aggravated, and the necessary rest (fourth stage) aggravates again from rest.

One of the great remedies in many homoeopaths' minds for arthritis is Kali Carbonica. This is one of the perilous remedies that can give shocking aggravations. Its whimsy, sensitivity to draft, ticklishness. concomitant constipation and indigestion, stitching pains and general cantankerousness identify it. The halogens. Fluoric Acid and Iodine, are salient remedies for the hot. restless arthritic patient of longer standing, when the symptoms agree. Lycopodium. that prince of polychrests. suits many arthritics: right-sided, warm, better by motion, worse 4 to 8 p.m.. craving sweets, bilious and hypochondriac. One must never forget Calcarea Phosphorica. especially in arthritis of the neck and shoulder girdle, and Calcarea Fluorica. iodum and Fluoric Acid are not alone in their relief from cold. Ledum and Guaiacum are to be considered here, and Kalmia after exposure to cold, where the pains go upward like Ledum, yet shift like Pulsatilla, and where there is heart involvement. In arthritis of the small joints, spindle fingers, think of Caulophyllum. Cimicifuga. (the black snake root. Actea racemosa) with its pains like electric shocks, its dreams of evil, its agitation, loquacity, its pain from hip to hip. and in the tendo Achilles, and its lumbago, should be remembered.

In connection with arthritis of the spine and the large muscles of the back, Nux Vomica leads in spasm. Bryonia and Aesculus need comparative study.

specific picture of tender joints, shifting pain, worse by motion, small joints involved, averse to be approached or touched (like Arnica), usually with concomitant bloating of the abdomen like a drum.

Formica Rufa has pain in the joints accompanied with sweat (like Oxalic Acid), and with its pain in small spots with numbness, worse thinking of it. should be considered more often than it is.

In the dread arthritis deformans, Causticum leads, with its aggra- vations in good weather, its relief in bed, its restless legs, its facial warts, its undue sympathy and complaints from grief.

No proper monographs have been written on arthritis treated homoeo- pathically. The references to it in our literature are strange and confusing. Boger in his Synoptic Key, under arthritis deformans, gives eight remedies: Arsenicum Alb.. Aurum. Causticum. Guaiacum, Hepar Sulph.. Mercurius, Pulsatilla. Radium.

One great remedy noted for its sclerotic tendency, slow and stubborn pace, dour disposition and great desire to be stretched, which should perhaps be thought of more often in chronic arthritis, is Plumbum.

Lastly, may 1 say that in almost no disease are psychotherapy and diet more important than in arthritis, this disease of rigidity and despair.