Volume 86, July 1997

Brewster O'Reilly worked closely with Decker to transform the text into clear modern English.

Overall it is a very successful translation, capturing the beauty of Hahnemann's language and expression much more closely than previ- ous editions. In contrast to the most widely used Dudgeon/Boericke and Kuenzli, Naude' and Pendleton translations, Decker's transla- tion is literal and not conceptual. Much thought was given to essential words, and where an important term could not be clearly translated from the German, it was retained in the text such as Wesen (essence, substance, creature, living thing, nature, entity), Geist (spirit) or Gemuet (emotional mind). This may initially disturb the flow of reading for the English- speaking reader unaccustomed to the German language. The German term is translated and explained in the excellent glossary together with other key words, illuminating the German word and illustrating its full depth.

My major criticism of the translation is the rather disjointed rendering of the word Heilkunst (literally healing art) as 'medical art' and Heilkuenstler (healing artist) as 'medical art practitioner'. Praiseworthy is the inclusion of the term 'art' both in the title and the text, as this is true to Hahnemann's work, and has not been taken into consideration by previous trans- lators. I feel translating Heil with medical is moving away from Hahnemann's intentions. The word Medizin is commonly used in German, as well as in the Organon, but Hahnemann distinctly chose Heilkunst to distin- guish his art from the current medical practice and Heilkuenstler from the physicians who merely practised medicine.

Apart from this the text is generally true to the German original, retaining its artistic quali- ty, for example the musical theme running through the entire book. Hahnemann refers to the Verstimmung--mistunement of the vital force and its over - tun ing Umst immung through dynamic medicine. We can see a fine example of this in w 16 on comparing the German original with the different translations:

alle solche krankhafte Verstimmungen (die Krankheiten) koennen auch durch den Heilkuenstler nicht anders yon ihr entfernt werden, als durch geistartige (dynamische, virtuelle) Umstimmungs-Kraefte der dienlichen Arzneien. (1992 Schmidt edition of the Organon)

all such morbid derangements (diseases) cannot

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be removed from it by the physician in any other way than by the spirit-like (dynamic, virtual) alterative powers of the serviceable medicines. (Boericke)

The physician can remove these pathological untunements (diseases) only by acting on our spirit-like vital force with medicines having equally spirit-like dynamic effects. Kuenzli, Naude' and Pendleton)

the only way the medical-art practitioner can remove such morbid mistunements (the dis- eases) from the dynamis is by the spirit-like (dynamic, virtual) tunement-altering energies of the serviceable medicines. (O'Reilly and Decker)

It would have increased the value of this edition as a text book to include a brief his- torical overview of Hahnemann's life, which I par t icular ly valued and enjoyed in the German version of Haehl's edition. This sets the tune of the beginning of the symphony that grew into Hahnemann's magnum opus and homoeopathy as a healing art.

The book is beautifully laid out. Paragraphs, footnotes and editorial comments are clearly distinguished, and are very pleasing to the eye. Wenda Brewster O'Reilly and Steven Decker have accomplished a tremendous task with an excellent translation, arrangement of the text and inclusion of a glossary, which is a real treasure containing many jewels. Through their work they have unlocked and revealed the depth and beauty of Hahnemann's work of genius for the English reader. It is a 'must to read' for all homoeopaths, as it truly captures what Hahnemann wanted to convey.

GABRIELA C. RIEBERER

H o m o e o p a t h y and the E l e m e n t s . Jan Scholten. Stichting Alonnissos, Servaabolwerk 13, 3512 NK Utrecht, The Netherlands 1996.

'An unknown picture needs an unknown remedy, ' suggests Jan Scholten in his new book, in which he describes a symptom pattern to the Periodic Table by which one may predict sufficient characteristics of a homoeopathic nature. It 's tempting to reply in the words of the American musical 'It ain't necessarily so!', but who's to say it nay? Scholten, in this highly controversial book, is not claiming that his

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ideas are complete, or properly proven. He quite properly takes pains to acknowledge that they are only a beginning which needs to be confirmed by conventional homoeopathic research.

In his ear l ier book Homoeopathy and Minerals Scholten developed the concept of the salts as the sum of their anion and cation components. Having identified key concepts, or 'themes' of known medicines, he predicted the likely homoeopathic drug pictures of hitherto unknown salts, illustrating his theory with successfully treated cases.

This clinical success led Scholten to extend his thinking to the Periodic Table as a whole. The elements increase steadily in atomic weight, and their differing structures are repre- sented in their arrangement in the Table. Were these elemental physical structures matched by homoeopathic characteristics such that one might predict the likely homoeopathic use of a medicine from its position in the Periodic Table? Although not the first attempt to answer this question (Roger Savage's foreword men- tions the work of Sherr and Sankaran), this is undoubtedly the most comprehensive attempt yet. Many elements in the Periodic Table have never been used in homoeopathy, a situation which Scholten likens to early maps where unexplored countries are shown as white spaces.

The book starts with a 72-page explanation of its essential ideas. The next 740 pages contain the new mater ia medica , which encompasses all but the Lanthanides and some 7th ser ies e lements . A 20-page Epilogue covers a number of 'principles of practice' issues, some of them controversial. At every stage he uses examples to illustrate his meaning, and this makes it easy to follow. The last 46 pages provide comprehensive and very useful graphs and tables which summa- rize the work, a bibliography, and separate indices of concepts and medicines. This is well done, although the explanation of the symbols used would have been better placed prominently at the beginning. (They differ from those of other authors. We are shortly to have a c o m p r e h e n s i v e Dic t iona ry of Homoeopathy, so is it too much to hope for a general ly accepted comprehensive set of symbols to avoid confusion?)

In a chapter on the source of drug pictures Scholten discusses both the value and the limi- tations of our two main sources of information

British Homoeopathic Journal

about drugs: provings and clinical experience. He adds his own contribution: 'Generalization', or extrapolation by inference from what is known of neighbouring elements. Scholten acknowledges that these are subject to error, both in the current descriptions, and in the way that they may be overshadowed by other features in a specific case. No correlation is found between frequency of prescription and its environmental occurrence.

The bulk of the book concerns materia medica based on the theory concerning the Periodic Table. This is usually set out in 7 lines ('Series') and 18 columns ('Stages') by which the physical structures of the atoms are related to each other. An alternative is a 7-ring spiral, with hydi'ogen at the centre. Each of these is described in a short paragraph. Each series has a theme, to do with being, one of man 's '7 ages', a geographical area, sense datum and tis- sue. The 'Stages' are those of any project: the idea, its initiation, planning, development, exe- cution, use at its prime, its decline and decay. Each medicine has these two items by which it can be described. Natrum, for example, is in the first stage, some of whose characteristics are simplicity, impulse, spontaneity, naivety, immaturity, being alone, and destruction. Relating the concepts of each of these lists gives a third list, corresponding to those charac- teristics expected in a potency of the element itself. These include simple love, relationships made impulsively which get stuck at the begin- ning, being alone in the home and so on. Since Natrum is known as a salt, this list must later be combined with another derived from the cation.

Quoting one of Scholten's cases may help, although there is so much in the book that serious study is needed to make it properly comprehensible. A patient complained of various ininor complaints including spots on his chin, teeth grinding, painful penile rash, receding hair, etc. He was a very committed manager who had planned each stage of his career carefully. This indicates a medicine from the 'Gold' series. Which 'stage'? At age 35 he had not reached the top, so he was between stages 1 and 10. He had passed the planning and initial stages of his career path, which was aga ins t s tages 1-5. He had responded briefly to Osmium, stage 8, which indicates it was not the best prescription. Detailed questioning established that he was practising as a manager, that he felt he was still

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learning, and could profit from constructive criticism and positive feedback; he was keen to co-operate and learn from it, and could still be subject to self-doubts. These might relate to confused situations, to which he was averse; he preferred a clear overview of his problem. These characteristics are reflected m the description of stage 7 of the 18, which is the element rhenium. Following a potency of Rhen ium he felt calmer and better general- ly, and his physical complaints went away and stayed away. Since some of these fea- tures had not been noted previously in the materia medica of this medicine, they were added to it tentatively after the success of this prescription.

The Materia Medica section has the following headings: Introduction. The homoeopathic history of the drug is traced, with references where appropriate. Signature. Origin of name, properties and uses of the element or compound. Concepts. Those of the relevant Series and Stages, mostly one-word characteristics. Group analysis. The combination of the 2 above lists to form 'catch-phrases', which we are told is often enough to form the basis of a prescription. Picture. Story-form unfolding of a clinical picture, based on all available information. In this: Expressions: key mental/emotional symptoms. General: key general symptoms. Complaints: a summary of local symptoms from all sources, brief where standard knowledge is great. We are advised to use this section cautiously, especially in lesser-known medicines. DD: a list of similar medicines, groups of medicines and Stages from which it must be distinguished. Sometimes helpful distinguishing features are included. Case: Where available, cases are included, except for those in the earlier book.

(Of these he comments that, at the time of writing, all but 2 cases were doing well.)

Also in his Epilogue the author presents a series of provocative propositions, only some of which relate to the main thesis o f the work. He might have been better advised not to include these, as he is being controversial enough already; however , compromise is clearly not his style. He argues against the exis tence of a single r ight remedy, f inds monthly repetition works for him in practice be t t e r than wa i t i ng till r e l apse oc c u r s , describes s ide-effects as symptoms of an incorrect remedy, obstacles to cure merely as

a feature of a case requiring therapy of itself, and so on. Each would make a good debate.

This b o o k mus t r ep resen t the b igges t p o t e n t i a l a d d i t i o n to the c o n c e p t s o f homoeopa thy since Hahnemann ' s original discoveries. This may sound sweeping, but if not, what is? I say 'potential' advisedly, as it all remains to be proven, in practice, by tradi- tional homoeopath ic and modern research methods. Data collection is now possible, which should facilitate this process, and I understand that the book itself is part of some programs. I hope all standard programs will soon have it.

It is not easy for someone used to traditional history-taking to adapt to these new ideas. Scholten very wisely suggests several read- ings of the chapters on Series and Stages, for until these are commit ted to memory and become familiar, it will remain difficult to use. While I admire the clarity of thought Scholten brings to the many succinctly stated examples he gives, I personally find it far less easy to see which of several possibilities is paramount in a given case.

It has been objected that a work such as this is unscientific, and therefore a disservice to h o m o e o p a t h y at a point in its h i s to ry when, more than ever before , its fu ture depends on more exacting evidence than that o f a few cases. But where does sc ience begin? In his Foreword Ferdnand Debats refers to this problem. Scientists have histori- cally started from an idea in question form. This is the heuristic, or searching, stage of research. Without it, no 'quantum leaps' in knowledge are likely to occur. If you accept the place of heuristics in the list of scientific method, and you place this work there, you will have the right perspective from which to consider the theory Scholten propounds.

I hope the work will be given a fair heating, and that many of us will eventually contribute to an increase in our knowledge which, while it may validate most of what is written here, will also probably modify it.

JOHN ENGLISH

Complementary and Alternative Medicines, Knowledge in Practice. Edited by Sarah Cant & Ursula Sharma. London: Free Association Books 1996. Price not stated.

The editors of this book are both professional