Families
http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/wt0.html
Vergleich: Siehe: Terms
in Homeopathy + Diagnosis yellow
Although Sunflower family plants share a characteristic flower structure,
the individual plant species exhibit a wide range of plant forms and gestures.
In fact, each plant family is really a broad spectrum of qualities, or
variations on a common theme. We see the Sunflower with its broad, rounded
leaves and tall, radiant flower heads in contrast with the Star Thistle, with
its narrow stem-hugging leaves, spiny thorns, and small clusters of tubular
florets. Also within this plant family we have the contracted Tansy flowers,
sometimes called “buttons” because they contain only disk florets (like the
yellow centers of the daisy), contrasted with
Dandelion and Chicory, which contain only the ray florets. The Yarrow is a
particularly remarkable member of the Compositae family.
Tansy (= Tanacetum vulgare).
The densely structured flower head gives an impression of compactness and
containment. Dandelion Taraxacum officinale
Bursting into brilliant yellow blossoms in early spring, this composite flower
has only ray florets. The stamens form the central structure; there are no disk
florets.The expansive quality of the Dandelion is
seen not only in the ray flowers, but also in the seed head which disperses
easily into the wind.
Sunflower Family because in many ways it also resembles plants of the Umbelliferae, or Parsley family. With its umbelin florescence, and its finely divided and aromatic
leaves, penetrated by the light and air, Yarrow shares the qualities of
openness and sensitivity of such Umbelliferae as
Angelica, Dill, and Queen Anne’s Lace. They have similar qualities of multiple
branching in the finely-divided leaves and flower heads, strongly structured
central stems, and aromatic qualities which penetrate into the leaves and
stems. However, while these plants have complex umbel flower heads like Yarrow,
the individual flowers are quite simple, unlike the composite Yarrow flowers.
Thus, we see that while botanical classificationis an
important guide to understanding plant gestures and signatures, we need also to
consider relationships of form which cross botanical boundaries. Within the
broad themes of botanical families, plants which share the same genus have an
even closer relationship in form. For example, the white Yarrow
(Achillea millefolium),
Pink Yarrow (Achillea millefolium
var. rubra), and Golden Yarrow (Achillea
filipendulina) are all members of the Achillea genus. Some other groups of essence plants in the
Repertory which share the same genus are Aesculus
(Chestnut Bud, Red Chestnut, White Chestnut); Artemisia (Mugwort,
Sagebrush); Calochortus (Fairy Lantern, Mariposa
Lily, Star Tulip, Yellow Star). Tulip; Dicentra
(Bleeding Heart, Golden Ear Drops); Lilium (Alpine
Lily, Easter Lily, Tiger Lily); Mimulus (Mimulus, Pink Monkeyflower,
Purple Monkeyflower, Scarlet Monkeyflower,
Sticky Monkeyflower); Penstemon
(Mountain Pride, Penstemon); and Rosa(California Wild
Rose, Wild Rose). We invite the reader to examine the descriptions of these
essences in Part III of the Repertory, to explore how the botanical
relationships of theseplants are expressed in flower
essence qualities. Within the Sunflower family, which is so large it
encompasses 10% of all flowering plants, there is also an intermediate grouping
of plants, known as the “tribe.” For example, the genera Cichorium
(Chicory) and Taraxacum (Dandelion), with their
flowers of all rays, are in the Cichorieae tribe. The
Achillea genus (Yarrow) belongs to the Anthemideae tribe, which also includes Artemisia (Mugwort, Sagebrush), Anthemis and
Matricaria (Chamomile), Tanacetum
(Tansy), and Chrysanthemum(Chrysanthemum, Shasta Daisy).
We can see the relationship of Yarrow to plants within its tribe. It has
finely divided leaves as Chamomile, and possesses strong aromatic oils like Mugwort and Sagebrush.
The Golden Yarrow, in particular, strongly resembles the Tansy with its
compact yellow, disc-only flowers and large, fern-like leaves. Having gathered
together all of these plant forms and relationships from our botanical studies,
we have in effect assembled the various letters of the plant alphabet, and
begun to arrange them into words. Our next step is discover the dynamic
relationships among the words so we can create meaningful sentences to shape a
“flower language.”
[Syphilis Jeremy Sherr]
“Dynamic Materia Medica
Syphilis” was written for those who like to solve puzzles, much like solving a
case. The following commentary is a key to unravelling the secrets hidden
within. You may choose to solve this puzzle yourself, leaving this section to
the end, or you may choose to read it first. Perhaps the best way is to read
both the book and this guide in parallel. Your aim is to join the eleven
syphilitic remedies into a meaningful totality, to arrive at the unifying
concept behind the syphilitic miasm. At the time I
wrote this book my concern was how much to make obvious and how much to
conceal. I was careful to keep some of the secrets hidden beneath the surface,
as I attempted to emulate the wonderful way in which Kent conceals and reveals
the essence of remedies through word and analogy. Perhaps I encrypted it too
much. The clues are all there, but most of them require effort and some can
only be understood on a second reading. Dynamic Materia
Medica Syphilisis an
examination of the syphilitic miasm through
its main remedies. I have described eleven archetypical syphilitic
remedies, each in a different way, to demonstrate the variety of approaches to
studying material medica provings,
toxicology, poetry, metaphor, myth, essence, history and analysis, all spread
over an underlying bed of philosophy. I conclude each remedy with a synthesis,
using my grammatical system which I fondly call ‘the verb’. This is designed to
take us beyond the emotional essence of a remedy and into its geometrical
structure. (You can read about the verb in the section 'The Verb'-Grammar of
Pathology in Chapter 1: Perceiving Materia Medica.) The book culminates in a meta-synthesis of all
eleven remedies that reveals the simple common denominator of syphilis. Since
the remedies portrayed here are a ‘family’, it is important to examine what
defines a family in the material medica. The
syphilitic group of remedies discussed in these pages is not based on chemical,
botanical or zoological affinities, for this classification belongs to the
realm of external appearance. The remedies in this volume belong to a variety
of kingdoms and families, but they share a common affinity through a central
idea. The central idea lies in the realm of causes, the energetic world of
potency and simple substance, the blue print behind all material manifestation.
This primordial library is not arranged in a ‘scientific’ linear structure, but
rather in spiral form based on energetic correlation, in which the central idea
of a plant maybe analogous to the central idea of a mineral or animal.
This is the realm of primary energetic design, the realm in which the
homoeopathic principle operates the
similarity of ideas rather than structure, pattern rather than signature,
potency rather than mother tincture. To my mind this represents the true study
of homoeopathic families, as opposed to crude categorisation according to form.
The central energetic themes can only be found through provings, as it is the provings
that reveal the fine structure lying at the source of each remedy, the
unexpected rather than the expected.
[Will Taylor].
I have expended a good deal of time and passion over the past year
refining and developing a remedy families database, in order to meet the
growing interest among homeopaths in investigating concordances between
remedies bearing relationships to one another by way of taxonomic
classification, chemical composition,
source, or other forms of presumed resemblance. I began by working with
the existing "families of remedies" repertory in RADAR, bringing in
other sources from our homeopathic literature, but soon determined that, in
order to catch the inevitable errors and omissions, I would need to start this
project from scratch.
I developed this database within the repertory structure of RADAR. It is
available as the Families of Remedies Repertory vers.1.40, incorporated into
RADAR 9 and Encyclopedia Homeopathica
2.0.
The Synthesis Repertory database lists a total of 2276 remedies, with
1632 remedies represented in 3 or more rubrics. The amount of information on
each listed remedy
varies tremendously, from 12,326 rubric-entries for Sulphur, to fewer
than 10 rubric-entries for 1,011 of these remedies.
For this work, I limited my attention to those 1632 remedies listed in 3
or more rubrics. The 600+ remedies this eliminated are typically listed only
for a gross clinical
indication from eclectic or domestic medical or toxicological
experience, and lack known characterizing symptoms essential for homeopathic
prescribing.
In addition, I found that many of the plants among these
barely-described remedies are difficult to clearly identify, with names not
reconcilable with contemporary lists
of named species, and insufficient information in our literature to
guide identification.
Types of Families
In this article, I will confine myself largely to the consideration of
taxonomic families - groupings created on the basis of presumed phylogenetic/evolutionary relationships
for plants and animals, or on the basis of chemical composition for
minerals. Many other forms of classification of remedies have been or could be
described - e.g., groups based on habitat or bioregion ("sea remedies."), groups based on strategy
("predators" "scavengers"), groups based on external appearances
["trees" (trees. do not represent
a taxonomically-meaningful group, but rather a growth strategy of plants
that evolved autonomously in several independent lineages) "vines"],
groups based on the part of
the source used ("roots" "barks" "venoms."). Groupings of this sort have
been included in the Families Database discussed in this article, but I will
defer discussion of these
to a future instalment.
Ocypus o. Staphylinus oleus = Schwarze Moderkäfer/= Devil.s’s coach horse. Arthropoda.
Scor. (bedroht durch Hinterleib hoch und zum Kopf hin zu strecken + sticht)/Ocypus reagiert auf gleiche Weise und beißt/riecht faul/lebt von moderndes Holz)
Gymnu-n. [“The stingray swings its tail upward and
forward in a reflex action, either producing sword like lacerations or driving
the spine into the limb or body of the victim”
(Edmonds, 1995:71)]; (sind die drei eine Familie im Sinne of Will Taylor?)
Names of Plant Families
As with the names of plants, the names of families have undergone and
continue to undergo revision. Looking for a standardized reference, I have used
two sources:
James Reveal (University of
Maryland) - position paper on Vascular Plant Family Nomenclature
Watson & Dallwitz
- The Families of Flowering Plants.
Theses sources also were used as references for historical and
contemporary synonyms, and for common English names for plant families.
I have applied common English names only when these are in common use
within the homeopathic +/o. botanic communities; there is no formal assignment
of common
English names to plant families apart from colloquial usage, and these
are usually merely based on a "typical" or commonly-known member of
the group. E.g., the family
to which Conium maculatum and Cicuta virosa belong is termed
the Umbelliferae (Umbelliferae = Apiaceae as a
synonym in historical and occasional contemporary use.)
Although this has sometimes been called the "carrot family" or
the "parsley family", these names are merely derived from commonly
known members of this family, which
are not necessarily typical of the group; these common English names
hold no formal significance and are not in widespread use, and so were not
included in my database.
In contrast, the common English name for the Solanaceae,
the nightshade family, is more descriptive of the family as a whole and is in
widespread common use both by botanists and by homeopaths.
Placement in Plant Families
Once botanical names were defined, I used principally internet-based
resources to identify placement of the species in botanical families. My
principal resources were:
International Organization for
Plant Information Database
Plants for a Future Database
In the rare cases where these groups did not concur with a placement to
a family, I pursued a variety of alternate references to reconcile their
differences. Some of the plant species -particularly the S. American and Indian
species- needed to be researched separately, on sites with regional plant
descriptions.
Meaningful Plant Families
Many botanical taxonomic families will prove useful to our purposes of
classifying remedies, and many will not. I will discuss this at length in my
next installment, but for now, let it suffice to note
that many of our botanical families contain only one known remedy, or a few
poorly known remedies.
It is tempting in these cases to move up the taxonomic tree, to look at
the remedies classified at the Ordinal level or even higher levels of the
classification hierarchy, as groups that might be meaningful to our work.
In a very few places I have done this (see the non-flowering plants and
fungi, further on in this installment; and the two
brief examples near the end of the Botanical Families section on the next
page.) But in most cases, these higher taxonomic levels are too large, or
comprise remedies of diverse and unrelated action, to be useful to our purpose.
Most of the useful concordances between taxonomically-related plant
remedies that have been described, have been at the level of botanical family.
Botanical Taxonomic Schemes
Botanical taxonomists, like any other group of people I know, seem to
have trouble agreeing with one another. This is compounded by the reality that
plant classification is based on numerous subjective criteria. Several
different systems of plant classification exist, and three of these appear to
dominate the scene at present. These are the systems of Arthur Cronquist, RMT Dahlgren, and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group
(APG). The latter incorporates data from DNA and protein analysis, to
supplement the relationships implied by structural similarities that
characterize the first two systems.
With a few notable exceptions, these systems recognize the same
botanical families, and organize membership within these families in nearly
identical manners. They differ largely in how they relate plant families one to
another - the affinities between families, and the organization of plant
families within higher taxonomic structure.
A Best Scheme for Homeopathy?
Which of these systems makes the most sense for incorporation into a
Homeopathic Remedies Family Database? At first glance, the "more
objective" APG system may feel more compelling in its ability to assess
real phylogenetic/evolutionary relationships between
plants. DNA affinities seem more compelling than structural similarities. Yet
for the purposes of botanists, this classification system is in its infancy,
and is not universally embraced.
And for our purpose as homeopaths, we need to ask whether we are
interested primarily in the phylogenetic/evolutionary
relationships of plants, or in features which lead plants to bear resemblances
one to another - will medicinal properties follow phylogenetic
and evolutionary lines, or structural lines, or chemical and pharmacological
lines?
My choice was to incorporate all 3 systems - separately, so that the
user could choose which to use, even look at relationships from three differing
perspectives in any given instance.
Cistus, Viola odorata
and Viola tricolor
Example: APG scheme, the remedy Cistus canadensis (Helianthemum canadensis, Rockrose) is placed in the family Malvaceae, of the Malvales, Eurosids II.
Dahlgren scheme, it is in the family
Cistaceae, Malvales, Malviflorae.
Cronquist places it in the Cistaceae, Violales, adjacent to
the family Violaceae (Viola odorata,
Viola tricolor) - which allows us to reflect upon
some fascinating concordances with these latter 2 remedies, helping us to
appreciate the scope of action of this relatively small (657 rubric) remedy.
Conversely, in the APG scheme, Paeonia officinalis (family Paeoniaceae)
and Hamamelis virginiana (Hamamelidaceae) are both classified in the order Saxifragales.
Although the Dahlgren and Cronquist schemes classify
these remedies in those same respective families, they do not relate these two
families closely to one another; and
fail to bring these two remedies of very similar properties together for
comparison.
The classification schemes discussed above apply to the Angiosperms or
Flowering Plants. The non-flowering plants were organized according to the
families and taxonomic
scheme outlined in the Tree of Life Web Project.
We have only 32 remedies in this group - most of these only scantily
described in our literature:
The reasonably described non-flowering plants basically comprise Lycopodium clavatum; Thuja occidentalis, Sabina and a
few fragmentarily described conifers and their
products (incl. a few with extensive, but recent provings
with little clinical verification); and Equisetum hyemale,
which although poorly-described, has a few strongly
characterizing symptoms. I broke this group down into some smaller
subgroups, largely above the level of botanical family, but feel that the
meaningful groups here consist
of "non-flowering plants" and its subgroup "coniferophyta."
Zuordnung von Pflanzen klassen zu den vier Elementen
Menschen, die konstitutionell auf pflanzliche Arzneien ansprechen, sind empfänglich für vielfältige Gefühle und sind mehr stimmungsgeleitet als mineralische
Typen, sie verlieren häufiger die mentale Kontrolle und leiden unter vielfältigen Befindlichkeitswechseln. Pflanzliche Typen sind schnell berührt, betroffen, beeindruckt,
verärgert, verletzt durch äußere Eindrücke und das Verhalten anderer und leiden seelisch an diesen Dingen.
Wenn wir pflanzliche Arzneien den vier Elementen zuordnen, ist, wie auch im Falle der Mineralien, sowohl deren psychisches als auch körperliches Wirkprofil
berücksichtigt. In diesem Zusammenhang lässt sich auch auf Erfahrungen der traditionellen Vier-Elemente-Medizin zurückgreifen, die Attribute von Pflanzen
wie Farbe, Geruch, Erscheinungsform untersucht hat. Pflanzen mit Nähe zum Feuerelement gelten z.B. als scharf, bitter, würzig, intensiv; sie haben eher leuchtende
Farben (gelbe oder rote Blüten).
Zunächst ein Beispiel einer Elementzuordnung:
Der Lebensbaum gehört zu den Zypressengewächsen innerhalb der Ordnung der Kiefernartigen (= Coniferae = Pinales). Die Kiefernartigen wiederum sind
Teil der Nacktsamer (Gymnospermae). Das Persönlichkeitsprofil des typischen Thuja-Patienten lässt sich folgendermaßen umreißen:
Psyche: Empfindsame Menschen, die sich oft in einer diffusen Weise wertlos oder schuldig fühlen. Sie entwickeln eine Abneigung gegen sich selbst, die im Extremfall
bis zum Selbst-Ekel gehen kann. Thuja zieht sich gerne in seine Privatsphäre zurück und kapselt sich ab. Mitunter kann er ungeduldig, bockig oder wütend reagieren.
Diese Leute haben häufig einen Bezug zum Spirituellen bzw. eine stark intuitive bis mediale Wahrnehmung. Im weiteren Verlauf der Störung werden sie zunehmend unsicher,
konfus und depressiv.
Körperliche Beschwerden: verfroren, träge-blockiert oder in Eile, trockene, gespaltene Haare, weißliche Lippen; gelbe, blasse, fleckige, ölige Haut, oft mit Pickeln;
Warzen im Gesicht und an Extremitäten
Die Nähe zum phlegmatischen Temperament/WASSER-Element sticht ins Auge; der Bezug zu den flüssigen Verteilersystemen, die Beschwerden in den
Bereichen WASSER l, WASSER 2 und WASSER 3 werden deutlich; auch die Signaturen des immergrünen Baumes deuten in diese Richtung. Wir ordnen den
Thujabaum, wie auch andere Vertreter der Kiefernartigen, dem Wasserelement zu.
[Mangliavori]
A family is a group of remedies with common characteristics and similar
themes.
The most important, fundamental themes are shared together.
The difference is their way of over-coming and compensating this
problem: there are several ways to overcome the same problem.
These characteristics can be expressed on different levels of similarity
or analogy.
Drug like:- Cann-i. Cann-s. Laur. Psil.
Ccoca. Camph. Pen. Nabal. Agn. Op. Pip-m. Bufo. Hell. Lith-c. and more.
It may be a horizontal relationships (poison of snakes / salt of
element, etc.) in which case it is very evident to say that they are similar.
However, remedies in a group may be biologically unrelated.
There are many analogies that we don’t know how to express in a logical
way.
There are alkaloids in the Bufo that you find
in certain mushrooms so it makes sense that they are in the same group.
The idea of a ‘family’ can only be a perspective.
It’s important to define why you put a group of remedies together as a family.
Make explicit what is your model of a family.
The relationship between a human and a substance is vital. On the one
hand, there is no evidence to connect ‘Tarantism’
with a spider bite.
But on the other hand, it is interesting to find out which kind of
connection we have in history – myth, legend, anthropological, etc.
It is our human projection to this substance. There are concepts that
are in some way universal – archetypes.
These are the ideas that we associate with substances.
Massimo makes a big distinction between the way somebody lives when he
is sick, and the way he lives when he is not sick.
If you look at a system / personality / remedy, the person does the best
to relate the inner and outer world in the best possible way.
Every system does this in a physiological way when nothing bad is
occurring, or in a pathological way when there is more or less disease.
To be what it is, each substance has a characteristic structure and
takes on characteristic strategies in order to be able to survive.
The sociology of plants, or animals, for example. It’s easier studying
animals because in some way, they are closer to us.
However, each plant has its own behaviour, and its own attitude to
survive. It’s even more complicated when you study minerals, stones, crystals.
But it wasn’t always like this in the history of human beings.
The concept that everything has some sort of vital force in it is a very
old idea in many ancient cultures, including the old European tradition.
Many of the minerals we use are not found in nature in the form that we
use them.
For example: Natrum muriaticum
is Sea salt, but it has many other bits & pieces in it!
We must consider the source of the substance we use. What is it that
makes the substance able to exist?
What makes the substance able to survive and go on?
These are important questions to understand the remedy.
The strategy of surviving is the specific way that the substance uses in
order to be what it is. People have used the bark from a willow for centuries, for
inflammation.
However, there was no way that they were to know that it contained
aspirin.
Many of our remedies have a rich history behind them.
The ancients were able to recognise the therapeutic effect, without the
tests that we now have. Often their ‘knowledge’ does not belong to our concept
of ‘knowledge’
of today, which incorporates, learning, lessons, books and being given
information.
In these cultures, knowledge was based on a non-verbal approach and
experience.
The Fungus.x Among Us
The five-kingdom scheme of classification of the living world places
fungi in their own kingdom, distinct from the plants. Homeopaths, however, have
become accustomed
to classing the fungi with the plants in a somewhat different 5-kingdom
scheme of substances (minerals, plants, animals, imponderables, nosodes). I've placed the Fungi as
a subgroup of the Plant Kingdom, in parallel with the non-flowering and
the flowering plants.
Agaricus (Amanita muscaria)
Although this is not consistent with strict contemporary taxonomic
thinking, it meets our needs as homeopaths well - aligning the fungi more
closely to the plants than to the animals and the non-living substances,
recognizing that the classifications useful to us are in part, but not
strictly, taxonomic.
I created subgroups of the fungi consisting of the Ascomycota,
Lichens, Basidiomycota and Zygomycota;
but of these, we only possess reasonable information about a few members of the
Basidiomycota, which basically defines our knowledge
of the group of fungi as a whole. Classification of the fungi into these
subgroups was guided by information from the Tree of Life Web Project.
I pondered carefully the position of the "bacterial" and
"viral" remedies, and decided to not create a special classification
for these in the "kingdoms" section. In the scheme
I followed, I placed these remedies in several locations, based on function
rather than on taxonomy:
The disease nosodes.x (with several subgroups)
It is my impression that the "bacterial/viral remedies" do not
form a group large enough, or cohesive enough, to warrant consideration as a
"kingdom" of remedies. And with the exception of the bowel nosodes, these all involve diseased tissues in addition to
the suggested pathogen.
The Animals.x
[C. Hering, Guiding Symptoms]
Identification and classification of the animal remedies posed a
generally greater puzzle than that of the plants. Many of our heritage were
amateur or professional botanists, and the conventional medicine of the 18th
early 20th centuries was largely botanical; so the details and
importance of botanical classification were not far from the reach of
homeopathic practitioners. The technical classification of remedies from
animals however appears to have been a different matter altogether.
Tracking down the identification of Theridion.
Hering introduced this spider to our materia medica in 1832, while in
Surinam. He described it as Theridion curassavicum, the 'Orange Spider'.
"A small spider known to
people as very poisonous, chiefly found in the island of Uraçoa.
This spider, about the size of a cherry stone, is found upon orange trees in
the West Indies.
When young it is velvety-black in
appearance, marked with antero-posterior lines
composed of white dots; on posterior part of body there are three orange-red
spots, while upon belly there is a large square yellow spot."
Theridion A review of the arachnological
literature revealed no contemporary or historical use of "Theridion" as a genus name. There is, however, a
family Theridiidae, comprising the cobweb-weavers and
the black widow spiders - these latter closely resembling Hering's
description of his critter. Scouring the arachnology
literature for widow spiders from the Caribbean region matching Hering's description,
I found the spider Latrodectus curacavensis.
In his Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy, Hughes
wrote,
"Hering
admits that his 'Theridion curassavicum'
is very similar in many respects to the Aranea tredecim-guttate, by which name Fabricius
has designated the Latrodectus malmignattus
of Volterra and other places" - this latter
spider being the black widow spider of central Europe.
Tracking Down More Spiders.
Other animal remedies gave me an even better chase, notably a few more
of the spiders.
Tarentula cubensis
is described by MacFarion, its prover,
as: "...found in Cuba and Mexico. It belongs to the same family as the
Tarantula hispana."
Clarke records it as:
"Mygale
cubensis. Aranea peluda. Cuban Tarantula."
Lippe describes it as a:
"...large, dark-brown and hairy
spider of Cuba."
According to Hering's collaborators,
"The Mygale Cubanensis,
which may be called the Cuban Tarantula, also found in South Carolina and
Texas, is a larger spider of a dark-brown color, not
so poisonous, and covered with more hairs than the Tarantula hispanica. Dr. Howard had some specimens sent from
Cuba..."
These descriptions indicate that it is not of the same family as
Tarantula hispanica (the Lycosidae,
or wolf-spiders), but rather is a new-world Tarentula,
a Mygalomorph.
My research identified 21 species of tropical tarantulas in Cuba, none
having borne the names used for this spider in our literature. We have no
better description of our "Tarentula cubensis" in our literature - which is compounded by
the fact that when MacFarion saw this spider, it was
macerated and partially decomposed. (Mathur tells
this story in his Systematic Materia Medica:
"The Tarentula
cubensis was being shipped into this country (USA) in
a container with alcohol to preserve it. The container broke on the way up, the
alcohol ran out, and the specimen decomposed.")
Mygale lasiodora
is described as another Cuban tarantula, yet its identification is even more problematic.
Mygale was introduced to our practice by John Houard, and described only as "a large black Cuban
spider". The two "provings" recorded
in Allen as Mygale are both the results of accidental
bites; one is recorded as "Mygale lassiodora" and the other as "Mygale
avicularia."
Even a brief review reveals very different symptom complexes in these
two "provers," leading one to question the
identity of the two spiders involved. Compounding this, Hering's
collaborators refer to "Tarentula cubensis" as being the spider introduced by
"Howard" - yet Howard's introduction was our "Mygale".
About all we can really say about these spiders, is that they represent
2 (perhaps 3?) of the approximately 21 Cuban theraphosid
mygalomorphs, or tropical tarantulas (caranguejeiras); most likely of the genus Phormictopus, Citharacantus, Avicularia, or perhaps Cyrtopholis
or Holothele. And that Tarentula
cubensis needs also to be placed as well in a small
"family" of "decaying animal tissue" remedies, along with Pyrogenum.
The Ambush Spider
" Aranea
scinencia" was one of the most entertaining
remedies to research. The best description offered in our literature is from
the prover, Wm.Rowley,
"A gray spider found on old walls in Kentucky. It does not spin a web; it
employs a springing lunge to take its prey." A search of the arachnology literature for Aranea
scinencia failed to bring this up as a described
specie, either current or historical; which was not surprising, as the genus Aranea is known for its classical orb webs.
To track this critter down, after becoming increasingly frustrated with
my text- and internet-based research sources, I subscribed to an Internet
discussion group of museum curators and university arachnology
specialists. It was an incredible ride. After posting my brief description of
our spider with a query for possible identification, I sat back to a flurry of
postings of suggestions followed by crossfire of professional insults -
reminiscent of a Gary Larson cartoon!
I finally received an apparently sane post from the curator of arachnids
at the University of Kentucky Museum of Natural History.
He suggested that a spider, found on old walls and building foundations,
that does not spin a web, but rather ambushes its prey, would most likely be a
member of the family Salticidae, the jumping spiders.
Perusal of an old arachnology text revealed a
small grayish spider of this family currently named Salticus scenicus, a native of
Kentucky.
The snakes were much easier to work with, thanks largely to the EMB
Reptile Database. In addition to providing taxonomic classifications, this site
lists historical records of Latin names that have been applied to given specie
over time.
Meaningful Animal Families
The animal kingdom has not been investigated nearly as thoroughly or
systematically for medicinal substances as has the plant kingdom. Most of the
higher levels of the taxonomic hierarchy have only
one or a few representatives, and in only a few instances - specifically,
for the snakes and spiders - is it useful to break things down to the level of
the zoologic family.
I have introduced lower levels of the taxonomic hierarchy only where
this provides useful discrimination between remedies; e.g., the Ophidia (snakes) of the Reptilia
are broken down to the family level,
while the Aves. (birds) are left as a
non-subdivided group (?Greifvoegel + Wasservögel?). This avoids "hierarchical
level clutter" while allowing finer discriminations where these are truly
useful.
The Minerals.
Bermhard Blosey
did much of the work on the minerals, and particularly on classification of the
Organics. The inorganic minerals, with their relatively simple structure, lent
themselves more easily to classification. The principal classifications were by
atomic constitution, according to periodic table organization. Additional
categories were added for common functional groups (e.g., acids) and complex
anions and cations such as nitrites, nitrates,
hydroxides, ammonium salts, etc.
A few substances normally regarded by homeopaths as simple substances
needed to be classified as the complex substances they truly are. Arsenicum album is the white oxide of Arsenic, As203; and
is functionally an inorganic acid.
Our information on Mercurius, for which Merc (Mercurius solubilis) and Merc-v (Mercurius vivus) are often
employed interchangeably, is based principally on Mercurius
solubilis. This is a complex compound
2[NH2Hg2)NO3-H2O] which is both a nitrate and an ammonium salt, and needed to
be placed in these "families," as well as classified under the
obvious element Mercury.
[Ulrich Welte]
Familien und Farben.: Auch wenn eine Theorie der Farben noch fern scheint, ist es immerhin gelungen, Zusammenhänge von Familien und Farben zu erkennen. Es war schon lange klar, dass bestimmte Familien wie die Dolden blütler (Apiaceae) meist Schwarz bevorzugen, die Calciumsalze Rot, die Lacs Rot oder Magenta, einige Aktinide offenbar Blau. Die Schlangenmittel sind mit besonders augenfälliger Häufung im Türkis zu finden. Offenbar bevorzugen einzelne Mittel einer Familie innerhalb einer größeren Farbgruppe wie Türkis ein ganz bestimmtes Türkis: zum Beispiel mag Crot-h.
meist Blautürkis 17C, während sich Lach. lieber Grüntürkis 19C aussucht. Praktisch alle Schlangen tummeln sich jedoch am liebsten im Pool der gesamten Türkisgruppe von 17AB bis 19CD.
So augenfällig wie bei den Schlangenmitteln ist es nicht bei allen Familien. Dennoch liegen z.B. die meisten Solanaceae im Dunkelblau (Caps. Dulc. Lycop-v. Phys. Solan-c. + n. + t-ae.), während andere, akutere Vertreter auch in anderen Farben zu finden sind:
Bell. und Hyos. im Gelb, Stram. in blutigem Dunkelrot und Mand. im Dunkelgrün. Die Häufung der Solanaceae in den dunkelsten Farben (D-E-Reihe) ist auffällig, was durchaus zum Naturell der Nachtschatten passt. Dieses Thema hat bisher im Farbrepertorium noch keinen Eingang gefunden und konnte nur vom Nutzer, der sich mit den Familienzugehörigkeiten schon auskennt, selbst
erschlossen werden. Wegen der augenfälligen Zuordnungen enthält die neue Ausgabe des Farbenbuches auf S. 47-49 nun erstmals eine Liste der bisher gefundenen Beziehungen von Familien und Farbgruppen. Sie ist sowohl nach Farben als auch alphabetisch angeordnet.
Familien und Farben
Acidums = Säuren Orange
Aluminiums Weiß
Ammoniums Braun
Anacardiaceae Türkis, Gelb
Antimoniums Türkis, Violett
Apiales = Umbelliferae Schwarz
Arachnida = Spinnen Orange,
Olive
Araliaceae Braun
Argentums Schwarz, Silber
Asteraceae = Compositae Weiß, Gelb
Aurums Grün, Dunkelgrün
Aves = Vögel Hellblau, Hellgrün
Bariums Rot
Bismuthums Grün
Boriums Grün, Türkis
Brassicaceae = Cruciferae Braun
Cadmiums Dunkelviolett
Calciums Rot
Carbos Rot,
Violett
Carduoidae Rosa
Chininums Rosa,
Grün
Cobaltums Rot, Blau
Compositae = Asteraceae Weiß, Gelb
Cruciferae = Brassicaceae Braun
Cuprums Blau
Drogenmittel Gelb
Euphorbiaceae Orange
Ferrums Rosa
Fungi = Pilze Gelb
Halogene Orange
Heliantheae Rosa
Iridaceae Olive
Kaliums Blau
Uses of Remedy Families
With the development of a comprehensive remedy-families database, it is
possible to investigate remedy concordances based on such relationships.
In the instalments to follow, I will explore the creation and rationale
of remedy "families" based on relationships other than taxonomic.
I will also investigate how taxonomic and non-taxonomic remedy
relationships may be gainfully applied in case analysis and in the comparative
study of materia medica.
[Paul Herscu]
Vipera and other close remedies: Lachesis, Pulsatilla, and Hamamelis
[John Henry Clarke: (1853-1931)]
[Jan Scholten]
Pioneered the periodic table method of classifying the elements for
homeopathy, discusses the crucial importance of classification for the ongoing
evolution
of homeopathy as a science, in an interview with homeopath David Nortman.
Emergence of his thinking about classifying homeopathic remedies:
How he first came up with the
idea of classifying the chemical elements.
Why he considers symptom-based materia medica inadequate.
His preferred way of describing
remedies in the context of their scientifically known relationship to other
remedies.
The crucial importance of
classification for the ongoing evolution of homeopathy as a science.
Scholten will take us deeper into the story
of plant classification and his overall vision for homeopathy:
How to classify plant remedies
and what sort of case-taking is required in order to make use of his system
(Part 2).
The astonishing philosophical
implications of his system of plant classification (Part 3).
His novel way of doing provings and his thoughts on the future of homeopathy (Part
4).
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum