Knowledge of Disease and Individualization.
Knowledge of Materia Medica.
Knowledge of laws and methods by which he can apply the knowledge of medicines to his knowledge of disease process. These include:
Remedy selection
Potency and dose selection
Repetition
Knowledge of causative and maintaining factors
If you develop a good understanding of all these variables, you will be able to perform many ‘ideal’ cures
Knowledge of physician
In the first aphorism, Hahnemann discussed the aim of a physician (to cure). In the second aphorism, he discussed what is an ideal cure and in the third aphorism, Hahnemann lists the tools that a physician needs to treat and cure his patients.
every individual case of disease‘.
If you are asked to hit a target with a bullet, the first piece of information that you will need is ‘what is the target?’. Then you will need to have a gun and some bullets at hand and last but the most important, you must know how to fire a gun precisely. Similarly, when you have to treat a patient, the first piece of information that you need is – what is it that you need to treat?
Is it the symptoms, the pathogen, the pathology, the nosological disease or the person as a whole?
Hahnemann says that you have to know what is curable in ‘every individual case of disease‘.
knowledge of the medicines
you need to have the knowledge of the medicines that you will need to target the disease process. You will need to know what medicines are available, what symptoms and conditions they cover (range and precision), and how to differentiate one medicine from other medicines producing similar symptoms. This means that you should have a good command over Materia Medica.
knowledge of Materia Medica
Repertory is a tool that can help us select a ‘group of possible remedies’. It is not necessary that every time the medicine that gets most points in repertorization will be the right one for your patient. You have to use your knowledge of Materia Medica to select the best remedy from this ‘group of possible remedies’.
medicine does not become a ‘simillimum’ for a case just because the symptoms match. A medicine will assist in curing a case only if –
medicine does not become a ‘simillimum’ for a case just because the symptoms match. A medicine will assist in curing a case only if –
The symptoms match.
The potency matches the intensity of the presentation and the totality of the case.
The dose, which includes the potency, form and quantity of medicine are appropriate.
The medicine is repeated appropriately.
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT POTENCY
After the remedy is selected, you also need to choose the right potency. If the medicine is the amplitude of a wave, then the potency is the inherent frequency of the wave.
After the potency is selected, we also need to decide the dose, which includes the form and the quantity of medicine. We need to decide whether we wish to give the medicine as dry sugar pills, liquid potency, water based liquid solutions, sugar of milk etc.
Knowledge about judicious repetition
Now we come to the judicious repetition. Often (not always), a single dose of the right medicine would not be enough to bring about a radical cure, unless the case is at functional level and the patient has strong vitality. We will need to repeat the medicine at appropriate intervals depending upon the reaction that we generate from our initial doses.
Knowledge about exact mode of preparation
Another important but often overlooked aspect of this aphorism is ‘the exact mode of preparation‘. Many times I have come across cases that have not responded to a remedy from a particular pharmacy but did very well when the same remedy was ordered from other pharmacy. The quality of our medicines does matter.
Knowledge of maintaining factors
So now you have the knowledge of the disease and the knowledge of the medicine. Plus you have also decided the right potency and dose. There might still be many cases which will not show a curative response even with the simillimum. If you do not address the causative, contributing and maintaining factors for a disease condition, even your right remedy will not be able to bring about a radical cure. The patient will improve and relapse
Summary
So in the end, I would like to enumerate the tools that are essential to cure a sick person. A good physician must have the –
Knowledge of Disease and Individualization.
Knowledge of Materia Medica.
Knowledge of laws and methods by which he can apply the knowledge of medicines to his knowledge of disease process. These include:
Remedy selection
Potency and dose selection
Repetition
Knowledge of causative and maintaining factors