Originally Published in “The Torch of
Homeopathy”, Oct 1962, Vol IV, No. 4
Mental Portraits of Remedies Familiar
And Unfamiliar
By
Elizabeth Wright
Hubbard, M.D.
To the honoured science of
medicine Homeopathy adds an especial human artistry, the perception of who the
human being to be healed really is and the recognition of his unique
individuality in the roster, or may I say Rogues’ Gallery of the proven
instruments of healing. The similarity between patients and remedy follows the
venerable law of correspondences, even the doctrine of signatures. The
signature of substances must be apprehended intuitively by the use, not only of
our six senses but of other more delicate and deep accords with the human
being. There is a special genius which can know human nature, which can enter
into the unspoken, which can perceive the process behind the pathology, the
functional disharmony which eventuates in organic illness. Medical students use
acrostics, often ribald, to fix dull facts in their memory. The homeopath knows
the remedy like the friends of his spirit.
What does Fluoric Acid mean to you? An essential
for proper teeth? A question of watery supply? A substance which gives an El
Greco-ish cast to your skin? A strange light on the avenue? Not so to the
Homeopath. To him it is Casanova. A charming, fickle butterfly, the man about
town who ogles women in the street, the “one night stand” young man with a yen
for variety and a great love of strangers. It is a male remedy, or one for
mannish women, debauchee, always trying to prove his manhood through
lecherousness and variety. Sudden aversion to his wife and children which he
fights against. Elated, buoyant, gay as only Phosphorus or Tuberculinum can be,
yet more vital then they. All his geese are swans. Compelled to move about
energetically, to walk fast, fearless of misfortune, flickering like a
fluorescent light. Hasty, craving cold and actually ill from warmth and warm
drinks. Hungary to gluttony, relieved by discharges which are thin,
foul and acrid. Compulsion for long walks to let off steam. His hair is
bristly, tousled, dry, his nails have longitudinal furrows and both grow
abnormally fast. Telangiectases, naevi, exostoses. Nails too thick, or thin and
irregular, brilliant red of the palms of the hands.
What does the substance Magnesium mean to you? A ribbon to make
a flash of light? A tooth paste? Or cathartic? Actually it is light, fragile,
brilliant, swift to be consumed, a flash in the pan. It cannot resist, it
flames and peters out with a faintly sour, metallic odour. If Sulphur is the
great unwashed, Magnesia Carb is the
great unloved, the illegitimate child, the droopy yet tense orphanage kid,
anxious, silent, insecure with twitching face and fingers and reproachful eyes.
With sunken neck and temples, always nibbling for comfort, craving meat, a
veritable Oliver Twist. Marasmus, inanition, unwanted. Magnesium in the human
body occurs pre-eminently in the sperm and in the vegetable kingdom, in seeds.
The child needing magnesium lacks creativity. It has great trouble with wisdom
teeth; for folks who come hard by what wisdom they have. Puny sickly, sour
babies who refuse milk, pitifully sensitive to noise and touch. Children of a
tubercular background who are going into a decline. Spare, thin, dark, irritable,
exhausted, unattractive children whom nobody loves. Folk who need soothing.
Worn-out women who can’t even keep house properly, restless, chilly, listless shadow-wives
of exigent males. Magnesia Carb, is
for exhausted nerves what china is to loss of blood or fluid, a replenisher, a
sustainer. Deficient vitality too tired when sitting, relieved by walking and
motion, sudden crumpling up without loss of consciousness. It is the chronic of
Chamomilla. The thymus gland and cerebrospinal fluid are rich in magnesium.
Magnesia is to chlorophyll as iron is to haemoglobin. A magnesia defect in the
diet is said to favour cancer.
Another defective vitality
remedy, sometimes called the mineral opium, appears in molluscs. It is
preternaturally cam especially in regard to death, which it loves. Speaks of
death with pleasure, though not suicidal, lies with eyes closed as if in coma,
and when questioned, hesitates, repeats the question to gain time and finally
slowly gives a rational answer. Brain fag, a “punch drunk” Nux Vomica. Too weak
to bring out an exanthematous rash. Effusions into the ventricles with rolling
eyeballs and half open eyes. Starting at noise, jerking in sleep, constant
fidgeting the feet, feeling as if she had committed a crime, complaints from
fright. Complete inability to sleep. Hangs the head down over the bed. Flushed
with the least sip of wine. Energetic during menses, Zincum that sovereign remedy in post measles encephalitis.
Almost anyone with blonde
daughters recognizes the whimsical, changeable, weepy, flirtatious Pulsatilla with their late menses and
corpus luteum deficiency, their religious streak in puberty, their jealousy and
love of sympathy, their suggestibility, selfishness, self-conscious, always
wanting to make good impressions and to blame things on somebody else. Every
big family of girls has one. Anemone Pulsatilla has been called the tears of
Venus. It wilts easily and blows in any wind. Homosexual women, dreading men
and averse to marriage, easily discouraged and touchy; unexpectedly stubborn;
avaricious. Fears ghosts and the dark. Even the ovum is superficially implanted
and doesn’t take hold. Aborts easily and early (Fifth week).
Many a blonde charmer,
however, is of the type of Cupurum the
metal of Venus; the hysterical blonde who has never been crossed; a spoiled
brat who needs a spanking ad craves one, “Off the handle”. Loquacious, sullen,
headstrong, malicious, morose, with fixed ideas, terror of death, complaints
from fright. Tricky and spoiled. Disorderly, changeable, dissatisfied. Maniacal
rage; cramps of spirit as well as body. Wild-eyed; Mad fits. They stage scenes,
bellow like a calf; lie like one dead, blue and alarming and rigid. Ecstasy
with quivering. Greed, malice, desire to injure, to run away and scream, to escape.
Shrinks from people. Mimicry. Emotional nausea more than any remedy; nervous
prostration in the young. Brain metastases, delirium with distorted face ending
in sweat. Chorea, convulsions, epilepsy worse before menses, worse at noon. Uraemia.
We know the dried up old maid
of Homeopathy? Spare dry, dark, timorous, staggery, hopelessly depressed. Confused,
cannot believe that they have said what they say. Don’t think they are
themselves. Craving dried food, tea grounds, chalk. Fears insanity. Peevish and
puckery. Illusions of being larger, numb, smooth etc. Suicidal at the sight of
a knife or blood. Uses up rolls of paper because of adhesive, soft stool, for
which she must strain. Cannot speak for hoarseness. All the sap dried out of
her. Do you recognize Alumina.
Every now and then a real
neurotic will challenge you. Perhaps they come because they cannot meet any
engagement, however pleasant, without diarrhea. She will tell you that all her
complaints are worse from mental exertion. There is a lack of balance between
the mental and the physical; she is withered by intellect. She is full of whims
and superstitions, as never stepping on a crack in a sidewalk. She hurries,
almost running in the street because she thinks someone is following her;
houses seems to crush her in the street. Times goes too slow. She has strange
impulses and notions and fears that she will fail at everything. She is the
prize rationalizer. Her memory is one of her chief complaints. Predicts the
time of death. Dreams of snakes and sex. Fears crowds. She is an exhibitionist
and will back up if someone is keeping an eye on her. She is off balance
inco-ordinated. She makes errors in perception, especially of size. Enlarged
sensation. She has fear of high places and is inclined to jump. Fear of
fainting and disease. Indisposed to aggravate, and escapes to alcohol. She is a
prize belcher and enjoys it. She wants the room icy and all her food cold and
is aggravated from warmth in any form. Especially worse in the sun. she is a
moon child. This is the actor’s remedy, so full of hoarseness, painful throat,
faltering speech from panic, failure and nerves “albi Ike” : Argentum Nitricum.
“If I rest I’ll go mad” is
the keynote to Iodium. Never can stay
in bed, even with 105 fever. Must have cold air, always much too hot.
Compulsions to violence without cause. Wants to hurt her child. Dark, thin,
tawny skinned, shriveled, withering; shuns company; melancholy, suspicious,
suicidal. Always eating and never full, yet emaciates. The glands enlarge at
the expense of the rest of the body. She burns the candle at both ends and is
cross and anxious.
Among the bees the Queen is
paramount, the drones and workers serve her. Apis is a jealous widow, deprived though not depraved, amorous,
vain and hard to please. She is bossy and wants to run the world, a breaker of
rules; absent-minded, apathetic, awkward, drops things and breaks things
(Whereas Natrum Mur, stumbles). There is a sting in her gossip; direct malice,
not devious. She is impatient, dictatorial, whiny, fidgety, and averse to
constriction, upset by trifles, irked by small talk, procrastinating, worse
after sleep and violently aggravated by anything hot.
If Rhus Tox is the human
barometer, Mercurius is the human
thermometer, suited by neither heat nor cold, alternately hot and chilly. Many
criminals need Mercurius. It may be a brutal ugly, cruel type, the murderer’s
remedy. Suicide by shooting. Like the substance mercury, it is elusive. Like
Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, it is glib, tricky, mischievous and
mistrustful. Weary of life. Hasty and ineffective. Quicksilver is called the
chameleon minera, and is volatile. The typical mercury patient is chronically
ill, disgusted and morose. He may be stupid and slow to answer, or overbright
without character. He is averse to company, timid, with feeble will and poor
memory, worse from sunset to sunrise. He is bald and slimy, inco-ordinated,
tremulous, irregular in his movements. He is embarrassed, homesick,
absent-minded, even imbecile. He has impulses he fears to follow. Mercurius acts on the lymphatic system
as Aconite on the circulatory. In olden times mercurialization was almost
universal, witness the slogan “salivation is salvation”. Mankind has been
thoroughly poisoned by this remedy.
What does the stately cedar
make you think of? Villa d’Este? Moth protection ? Indeed, the arbor vitae was
the secret of Egyptian embalming, dissolving tissue and flushing out the
cavities. Thuja Occidentalis is oval
in its shape, in its buds, and those who need it are elliptical, al curves. It
is the great remedy for Japanese people; for drinkers of tea, for those prone
to excess. It is the former of tumours, lipomas, cysts, papillomas; warts, dark
as the cypress and canalized. It has strange odours of fish brine, of garlic,
of honey. The Thuja patient has too much hair. The women with moustaches and
coarse, black hair on the limbs. It is waxy and greasy looking and pallid like
the buds of the cedar. Extremely sensitive to people, to music which makes it
weep. Worse in the moonlight; sensation of being separated from oneself, of
floating; dreams of falling, the dead and levitation. Salacious; hasty, yet
often slow in speech, mistakes in reading and writing. Fixed ideas; thinks she
is pregnant, that the bones are brittle as glass, that something is alive in
the abdomen, that the legs are made of wood or elongated. Heavy trunk, short
neck and thin limbs. Small bones, short children with irregular teeth which
decay early. Pituitary dysfunction; mentally defective children, ugly looking
people. Chronic ill effect of animal poisons such as snake bites, serums and
especially vaccinations which do not take. Feels he is under the dominion of a
superior power, or as if a stranger were at his side. Exhausted and soft.
Dissolves tumours. Excess of mucous discharges. The most vesicular remedy.
Such are the fascinating
faces of some of our helpful remedies, but as La Fontaine said “Gardez-vous de
juger les gens sur la mein !”
Sulphur may be clean, Silica angry, Pulsatilla thirsty and
Arsenicum left sided. Especially in acute diseases remember that your familiar
types, such as the portraits I have been giving, are not the safe criterion.
The physical generals are the best lifeline. Paradox is of the essence !
