Vol. 22 No. 5 November 2002
by Freddie Fudpucker
It is inevitable that mixed in with symptoms created by a medicine in the course of a proving will be many that belong to the prover’s personality or arise from old injuries or past or present ill health.
The French homœopath Phou Souk-Aloun has drawn attention to this in his writings, which have been drawn on here to a considerable degree.
The manner in which Hahnemann collected the experimental symptoms for his materia medicas presents a major defect in the fact that the provers’ usual symptoms are not excluded. A usual symptom is not caused by the drug and is defined by its frequent and banal presence before the proving; if the same person makes many provings his usual “symptoms” appear clearly. In a proving the usual symptoms form the background noise on which the true symptoms of the drug appear. That is the reason why the usual symptoms must be listed before the proving and excluded from the results. It is recommended by most authors, notably Kent.
In the Materia Medica Pura the usual symptoms of some provers having participated in several provings appear distinctly. Many homœopaths are conscious of this problem, others ignore its existence or think that the book can not have errors other than misprints.
Another kind of flaw is the fact that errors are repeated. For example we can read in most materia medicas under Abies canadensis: “sensation as if a hard-boiled egg was lodged in the stomach” with no further information. Allen’s Encyclopedia mentions that Abies canadensis was proved by Gatchell with two provers; one had a distension of the epigastrum. Where did the “egg” come from? Perhaps from Abies nigrum that has this symptom from Dr St Clair Smith.
Let us continue with Platina, with its very remarkable mental symptoms: “Arrogant, proud, haughty, things appear small”; all these symptoms come from only one woman prover of Gross, reputed to be hysterical.
Eleven provers did more that 10 provings for Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura. They are: C.F. Langhammer: 40 provings (only with the M.M.P.; he made others in the Chronic Diseases); C. Franz, E. Stapf: 32; W. Gross: 28; F. Hahnemann: 26; W.E. Wislicenus: 24; C.G. Hornburg, F. Hanmann: 23; C.T. Herrmann: 16; J.C.D. Teuthorn: 14; S. Gutmann: 13.
Unlike the majority of Hahnemann’s provers of Leipzig, C.F. Langhammer did not have a medical background; through the notes of Hahnemann we know that he had congenital malformation and condylomata on the penis, was a smoker and depressive. He was the prover that appears most in the M.M.P. (Angustura, Argentum, Arnica, Arsenicum, Aurum, Belladonna, Bismithum, Calcarea aceticum, Chloratum, China, Cicuta, Cimex, Cocculus, Colocynthis, Conium, Cyclamen, Digitalis, Drosera, Euphrasia, Guaiacum, Helleborus, Hyoscyamus, Ipecac, Ledum, Magnetis polus arcticus, Manganum, Menyanthes, Mercurius, Muriaticum acidum, Oleander, Phosphoricum acidum, Ruta, Sambucus, Spigelia, Spongia, Stannum, Staphysagria, Taraxacum, Thuja, Verbascum).
In Hering’s Guiding Symptoms, Arsenicum sulfuratum flavum, Taraxacum, Cina and Euphrasia have a lot of symptoms that came only from Langhammer (he was the only prover for Ars sulf flav).
Langhammer noted all his symptoms scrupulously through the provings. One can see the progress of a sickly and anguished man, with chronic bronchitis and urinary problems. In the morning he wakes up with sweat, cough and spit. He is bitter with self-reproaches and misanthropy then, but becomes cheerful. As the day progresses he has troubles of digestion and in the ENT sphere, sneezes and hiccups. A walk in open air invokes dizziness and pains. The night is long for this insomniac and erotomaniac, full of vivid dreams and nocturnal pollution.
His abundant mental symptoms are repetitive:
• anxious, about the present and the future, as if he had done something bad or committed a crime ( ang, arg, arn, calc ac, cocc, con, cycl, dros, mag p arcticus, mur ac, ruta, spig).
• sad, weeping, cross, ill-humoured, peevish, silent, anger at trifles, takes every trifle or joke in bad part, discontented with himself, reproaches himself and others, misanthrope (ars, bism, calc ac, cic, coloc, con, cycl, euphr, hyos, ip, led, mag p arcticus, merc sol, meny, mur ac, phos ac, samb, tarax).
• cheerful, gay, good-humoured, sociable (ars, bism, cocc, con, cycl, hyosc, ip, mur ac, ruta, thuja).
• tranquillity of mind (aur, china, cic, con, dros, led, m p arcticus, mang, meny, tarax), reconciled to his fate, contented with himself (aur, calc ac, cic, cocc), indifferent, remained undisturbed throughout all the events that occurred (arg, arn, ars, cina, merc sol).
Langhammer had in almost all the provings these symptoms too:
• dilation and/or contraction of pupils (ang, arn, ars, aur, bell, cic, cina, con, cycl, dros, guai, hyos, ip, led, mang, meny, mur ac, olean, phos ac, staph, tarax).
• constant frequent urging to urinate or other similar symptoms of dysuria (arg, arn, ars, calc ac, cic, cycl, dros, euphr, hell, ip, mag p arcticus, mang, meny, mur ac, phos ac, spig, spon, staph, tarax). Perhaps some aftermath of a venereal disease (he has a condylomata on the penis) or an enlarged prostate (we don’t know his age) would explain his chronic dysuria.
• pains of the head (ang, arn, ars, ars sulf flav, bell, china, cina, cocc, coloc, con, cycl, dig, euphr, guai, hell, hyos, led, mag p arcticus, mang, meny, merc sol, mur ac, ruta, spon, staph, tarax, thuj).
• hiccups (ang, arg, coloc, cycl, dros, euphr, hell, hyos, ip, led, ruta, spon, staph).
• disturbed sleep: waking with a start in fright, sleep broken by dreams, frequent waking as from fright, (aur, bism, cocc, dig, dros, euphr, guai, mag p arcticus, merc sol, sam, spon, stan).
• animated or vivid dreams (ang, arn, ars, aur, bell, cic, coc, coloc, con, dros, guai, hell, ip, led, mang, meny, mer sol, mur ac, ruta, samb, stan, tarax),
• voluptuous sensations or dreams, nocturnal pollution (ang, ars, bell, bism, cic, hyos, led, mag p arcticus, merc sol, olean, spon, staph, tarax).
• sneezing (arg, arn, ars, calc ac, cicuta, con, cyc, dros, hell, hyosc, merc sol, ruta, spig, stannum, staphisagria, thuya).
• cough (ang, arg, arn, ars, bell, cina, cocc, con, cycl, dig, euphr, hell, mag p arcticus). These symptoms are perhaps related to the fact that he was a smoker.
• vertigo, staggering (ars, aur, bell, calc ac, cic, cocc, dros, ip, led, mag p arcticus, merc sol, olean, ruta, spig, tarax, verb).
The same sort of lists can be made for the provers Wislicenus, Franz and Hornburg.