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although there have been no formal provings of particular remedies, other considerations have provided insights that have enabled clinical use to be made of the appropriate agents. In practice the Doctrine of Signatures ‘helps to clarify and verify the therapeu- tic value of natural medicines’ (Richardson-Boedler C 1999), and other considerations can also add to the rounding of a remedy picture. However, the doctrine presents only an analogy and must not be taken too literally in every case, as in the snake remedies where the constant movement of a snake’s tongue is generally equated with the characteristic of ‘loquacity’ in the remedy pictures. In reality that movement in the snake is concerned with the detection of odour rather than the production of sound. However the analogy is still valid, the link being via the constant action of the tongue in the appropriate species rather than the function that movement performs.
It is in this context that history becomes intertwined with homeopa- thy. The world is a dynamic entity and hence the dynamics of situations are both cause and effect of the end results. The Buddhist concept of ‘non-duality’ implies the interdependence of all things at all levels, a concept reflected in the Chinese Tao philosophy. Remedies come from the natural world in all its forms and to understand them fully it is helpful to consider all aspects of not only the physical form of their source substance as reflected in the Doctrine of Signatures but also the cir- cumstances that surround their devel- opment and use. Homeopaths have found that when working in areas rich in a particular mineral the indications for prescribing the remedy derived from that mineral are increased.
It is instructive to consider why Hahnemann laid such emphasis on provings. In part it appears to have been an aspect of his desire to provide a logical and scientific basis for homeop- athy in contrast to what he regarded as the irrational theorising that charac- terised much of medicine at that time. However, the homeopathic system is dependent on knowing the reactions of substances on the healthy body and hence his major need was to establish a means of investigating substances in relation to the healthy rather than the sick body. However Kent, when dis- cussing materia medica and provings, considered that the student required something to bring the bald facts ‘to life’ as an aid to understanding and
learning. He wrote “it is nearly useless to cram students with the language of provings. If they cannot be made to see the clinical image to be met, they fail to make good prescribers”. His method for this was the valuable tool of clinical observation of cases (which Hahnemann also advocated strongly in his Lesser Writings) but in addition the Doctrine of Signatures can aid this process of creating three dimensional images of the remedies.
Since Hahnemann’s time prescrib- ing concepts have developed in new directions and this is another area in which the Doctrine of Signatures has acquired a new relevance. Recent years have seen the development of new ways of looking at remedies, leading to different approaches to both case taking and the search for the similli- mum. There is no doubt that these have added, and are still adding, much to the practice of homeopathy, a devel- opment that would not have taken place if there had been too rigid an adherence to the mechanics of provings without the additions of more intuitive dimensions. The prescribing approach based on the kingdoms mirrors the thoughts of the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries’ writings on animal and celestial signatures (Crollius 1608; Adamanthus 1760). Considerations revealed by the Doctrine of Signatures represent broader dimensions and as such should be incorporated into the thinking about remedies. ‘Aude sapere’ is the Latin phrase that appears on the title page of the Organon, and generally it is translated as ‘dare to know (or be wise)’; perhaps Kant’s interpretation of ‘have courage to use your own under- standing’ is more appropriate?
Understanding of remedies is at the heart of homeopathy, and it is inevitable that greater understanding will broaden and deepen the effective practice of the discipline. Many prov- ings have produced contradictory symptoms and often it is only via an appreciation of factors beyond the
purely physical that these can be understood fully. Both the Doctrine of Signatures and the Law of Similars have been, and continue to be, part of mankind’s developing story. To dismiss either is to distort the balance of the pictures of the remedies that homeopaths rely on. How can the balance of the patient be restored if the balance of the remedy is not under- stood fully? The Doctrine of Signatures and similar ‘lateral’ concepts are not heresy; to ignore them is not a help and, at the deeper levels of homeopathic understanding and prescribing, their dismissal may be a definite hindrance.
References
Gregory P (2013) Insights into Veterinary Homeopathy – Saltire Books Glasgow
Personal communications
Handley R (1997) In Search of the Later Hahnemann – Beaconsfield Publishers. Beaconsfield England
Kent J T (1926) New Remedies, Lesser Writings and Precepts – Homoeopathic Publishing Co Ltd London
Lee J (1997) Ancient Egyptian Medicine and the Law of Similars – Ainsworths London
Lev E (2002) The Doctrine of Signatures in the Medieval and Ottoman Levant – Vesalius viii 13-22
Richardson-Boedler C (1999) The Doctrine of Signatures: a historical, philosophical and scien- tific view.
Part I Brit Hom Journal 88 172-177
Part II Brit Hom Journal 89 26-28 Thompson E (2015) A dream proving of
Petroleum – Simile April 2015
Treuherz F (2010) The Genius of Homeopathy –
Saltire Books Glasgow
Vannier L (1992) Typology in Homoeopathy Translation from the French by Marianne Harling – Beaconsfield Publishers
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