Historical Perspective by Julian Winston, Editor-in-Chief of Homeopathy Today and author of The Faces of Homeopathy: An illustrated history of the first 200 years

In the wake of the terrorist attacks, the Internet is abuzz with questions about what can be done by homeopaths in the event of a biological attack on the U.S. We've read of homeopathy's successes in past epidemics, such as the flu pandemic of 1918, and people are asking, could homeopathy succeed again? Under potentially very different, man-made circumstances? The feelings of panic and fear are rising. This is understandable; but it would do us all well to relax for a minute, take a deep breath, and look at the situation.

Homeopathy is a system of medicine used to help sick people. In rare instances it might be used as a preventative, but the use of the "nosode" (a remedy made from the infectious agent) might not be the best prophylactic. There is little data to support the nosode (isopathic) approach. Even if there was, there are many different strains of the various potential infectious agents, and who can say if a nosode made from an infectious agent was made from the "right" strain?

We should recall that when homeopathy's founder Samuel Hahnemann was treating an outbreak of scarlet fever early in his career, he found that Belladonna was the remedy needed for those who were ill, and he offered Belladonna as a prophylactic for those who had been exposed. In paragraph 241 of The Organon of Medicine, Hahnemann says: "... each single epidemic is of a peculiar, uniform character common to all the individuals attacked, and when this character is found in the totality of the symptoms common to all, it guides us to the discovery of the homeopathic (specific) remedy suitable for all the cases, which is almost universally serviceable in those patients who enjoyed tolerable health before the occurrence of the epidemic."

In the scarlet fever episode, Hahnemann determined the "homeopathic specific" remedy to be Belladonna. Francisco Eizayaga of Argentina reported having successfully given the remedy Lathyrus sativus as a prophylactic against polio because it was the homeopathic remedy that was most like people's manifestation of disease in that particular polio epidemic.

We are used to looking for the one "silver bullet" that will solve the problem, and in homeopathy there is no such thing. There are, however, many "silver bullets" which might be of use, but to know which one to use, we must first see how the disease manifests in the patient. We have to find the unique way in which those affected are responding to the disease, and then find the remedy that is most characteristic to the case. This means waiting until after the disease manifests.

In the flu epidemic of 1918, the remedy most used was Gelsemium - simply because most people displayed Gelsemium symptoms - overwhelming weakness, loss of coordination, dullness, and stupor. Yet, there were some who needed other remedies because they were presenting a different set of symptoms.

The homeopathic remedies that may be useful in an epidemic will only become known as we see cases, as the disease progresses.

Certainly we can generalize now upon the common symptoms of each potential disease and determine a group of likely remedies for each disease. But such a list of remedies is only a potential guideline and offers no guarantees that the specific remedy for an actual epidemic will even be on the list. As always, we will need to remember to look at the individual case(s) and find the remedy that is most characteristic.

Another caveat: antibiotics are the best-known defense for some of these biological agents, and the window of opportunity for using them successfully is quite short. Stay in touch with your conventional practitioner and public health department as well as your homeopath. If a crisis arises, do not discount the use of conventional medication. Homeopathy is not the only line of defense.

Some history of the treatment of epidemics with homeopathy by Julian Winston

From its earliest days, homeopathy has been able to treat epidemic diseases with a substantial rate of success, when compared to conventional treatments. It was these successes that placed the practice of homeopathy so firmly in the consciousness of people world-wide.

There is a story told about Joseph Pulte, one of the earliest homeopaths in Cincinnati. When he began his practice, many people were so angered by a homeopath being in town that they pelted the house with eggs. He was becoming discouraged enough to think of leaving. His wife said, "Joseph, do you believe in the truth of homeopathy?" He replied in the affirmative. "Then," she said, "you will stay in Cincinnati."

Shortly after, when the Cholera epidemic swept through, Pulte was able to boast of not having lost a single patient-- and he was accepted into the community. In the Epidemic of 1849, people crowded to his door and stood in the street because the waiting room was full.

In 1900, Thomas Lindsley Bradford, MD, wrote a book called "The Logic of Figures" in which he collected the statistics he could find that would compare the conventional therapeutics with homeopathic ones. Many of the figures cited below are derived from Bradford's work.

One of the earliest tests of the homeopathic system was in the treatment of Typhus Fever (spread by lice) in an 1813 an epidemic which followed the devastation of Napoleon's army marching through Germany to attack Russia, followed by their retreat. When the epidemic came through Leipzig as the army pulled back from the east, Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, was able to treat 180 cases of Typhus-- losing but two. This, at a time when the conventional treatments were having a mortality rate of over 30%.

In 1830 as the cholera epidemic was reported coming from the east, Hahnemann was able to identify the stages of the illness, and predict what remedies would be needed for which stages. When Cholera finally struck Europe in 1831 the mortality rate (under conventional treatment) was between 40% (Imperial Council of Russia) to 80% (Osler's Practice of Medicine). Out of five people who contracted Cholera, two to four of them died under regular treatment. Dr. Quin, in London, reported the mortality in the ten homeopathic hospitals in 1831-32 as 9%; Dr. Roth, physician to the king of Bavaria, reported that under homeopathic care the mortality was 7%; Admiral Mordoinow of the Imperial Russian Council reported 10% mortality under homeopathy; and Dr. Wild, Allopathic editor of Dublin Quarterly Journal, reported in Austria, the Allopathic mortality was 66% and the homeopathic mortality was 33% "and on account of this extraordinary result, the law interdicting the practice of Homeopathy in Austria was repealed."

Homeopathy continued to be effective in the treatment of Epidemic Cholera. In 1854 a Cholera Epidemic struck London. This was a historically important epidemic in that it was the first time the medical community was able to trace the outbreak to a source (a public water pump), and when the pump was closed, the epidemic soon ceased.

The House of Commons asked for a report about the various methods of treating the epidemic. When the report was issued, the homeopathic figures were not included. The House of Lords asked for an explanation, and it was admitted that if the homeopathic figures were to be included in the report, it would "skew the results." The suppressed report revealed that under allopathic care the mortality was 59.2% while under homeopathic care the mortality was only 9%. It is hard today to comprehend what kind of scourge such an epidemic was. As was seen in the later Flu Epidemic of 1918, one could be healthy in the morning and be dead by evening-- it moved that rapidly. Many books were written about the Homeopathic treatment of Cholera during these times, among them: Cholera and its Homeopathic treatment, F. Humphreys (1849); Homeopathic Treatment of Cholera, B. F. Joslin (1854); Homeopathic Domestic Treatment of Cholera, Biegler (1858); Epidemic Cholera, B. F. Joslin (1885); Asiatic Cholera, Jabez Dake (1886).
The success of homeopathic treatment continued with the later cholera epidemics. In the Hamburg epidemic of 1892, allopathic mortality was 42%, homeopathic mortality was 15.5%

During the 1850s, there were several epidemics of Yellow Fever in the southern states. This disease was eventually found to be transmitted by mosquito. Osler, says that the allopathic mortality from Yellow Fever is between 15-85%. Holcome, a homeopath, reported in 1853 a mortality of 6.43% in Natchez, and Dr. Davis, another homeopath in Natchez, reported 5.73%. In 1878 the mortality in New Orleans was 50% under allopathic care, and 5.6% (in 1,945 cases in the same epidemic) with homeopathic care.
The two best books on this topic were: Yellow Fever and its Homeopathic Treatment, Holcome, (1856) and The Efficacy of Crotalus Horridus in Yellow Fever, C. Neidhard, (1860).

Another epidemic disease which was treatable with homeopathy was Diphtheria. Since the advent of widespread vaccination, it is a disease not often seen in our modern world. Diphtheria appeared periodically, and rarely had the same presentation. It was, therefore, very important for the practitioner to individualize the treatment in each specific case or generalized epidemic. A remedy which had been effective in treating it one year might not be the same remedy needed the next year.

In the records of three years of Diphtheria in Broome County, NY from 1862 to 1864, there was a report of an 83.6% mortality rate among the allopaths and a 16.4% mortality rate among the Homeopaths. (Bradford)

Perhaps the most recent use of homeopathy in a major epidemic was during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. The Journal of the American Institute for Homeopathy, May, 1921, had a long article about the use of homeopathy in the flu epidemic. Dr. T A McCann, from Dayton, Ohio reported that 24,000 cases of flu treated allopathically had a mortality rate of 28.2% while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05%. This last figure was supported by Dean W.A. Pearson of Philadelphia (Hahnemann College) who collected 26,795 cases of flu treated with homeopathy with the above result.

The most common remedy used was Gelsemium, with occasional cases needing Bryonia and Eupatorium reported. Dr. Herbert A. Roberts from Derby, CT, said that 30 physicians in Connecticut responded to his request for data. They reported 6,602 cases with 55 deaths, which is less than 1%. Dr. Roberts was working as a physician on a troop ship during WWI. He had 81 cases of flu on the way over to Europe. He reported, "All recovered and were landed. Every man received homeopathic treatment. One ship lost 31 on the way."

Closer to our present time, there were the Polio epidemics in the mid-1950s. Dr. Alonzo Shadman, a homeopath in the Boston area, emphasized that until *actual paralysis* was observed, it was hard to distinguish the prodromal symptoms of Polio from those of the common cold-- and he treated many "summer colds" during the time. Were they incipient polio? No one can tell.

Dr. Francisco Eizayaga or Argentina, tells of a polio epidemic in Buenos Aires in 1957, where the symptoms of the epidemic resembled those of the remedy Lathyrus sativa. The homeopathic doctors and pharmacies prescribed Lathyrus 30c as a prophylactic, and "thousands of doses" were distributed. "Nobody registered a case of contagion." Eizayaga points out that in other epidemics of polio, Gelsemium was the indicated remedy-- emphasizing, again, the need for individualization.

Homeopathy has been very effective in treating many of the epidemics during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Why the successes are not better known is a subject for conjecture. It could be that, like the physician quoted below, most would rather not see the ineffectiveness of the conventional therapeutics nor accept the efficacy of homeopathy.

From Homeopathy In Influenza-A Chorus Of Fifty In Harmony by W. A. Dewey, MD (Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy, May 1921)

One physician in a Pittsburgh hospital asked a nurse if she knew anything better than what he was doing, because he was losing many cases. "Yes, Doctor, stop aspirin and go down to a homeopathic pharmacy, and get homeopathic remedies." The Doctor replied: "But that is homeopathy." "I know it, but the homeopathic doctors for whom I have nursed have not lost a single case." --W. F. Edmundson, MD, Pittsburgh.

85 Years of Homeopathy: Elsa Engle and the sixth edition of the Organon. An Interview by Frances Kalfus OMD, LAc (Simillimum, Volume XIV, Issue 3, Fall 2001, p. 9) 97 years old at time of interview in 1992.

Q. Were you practicing with Dr. Engle?
A. Well, I learned about everything. It was like I was a nurse practitioner. I must tell you, during the 1918 flu I did practice medicine without being a licensed doctor for five days, and I did not lose a single, solitary patient.

Q. So the flu hit here in California also?
A. Good grief, they died. Nowadays they say that they killed them off with the medicines that they gave them, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised, because I know they gave you seven things, but I don't remember what they were. The homeopaths at Hahnemann Hospital didn't lose any. Dr. Engle lost two patients. One was a young woman, who had gotten married just before the war started. She was pregnant and had a bad heart. Dr. Engle was worried because of her heart, whether she was going to be able to carry the pregnancy to term. When the flu came, she died. The other was a woman who also had a very bad heart. I forget what they called that heart disease; her lips were always blue. It was very serious, she was in a very critical state. These were the only two patients we lost.

Q. Do you remember how you treated it?
A. They all had about the same symptoms. You didn't have to do anything else but give them a bottle of Gelsemium, followed with a bottle of Eupatorium perfoliatum. We told them to go to bed, and to stay out of the bathtub and out of the shower, and to keep themselves clean with alcohol rubs. In those days we could get them to clean with alcohol. And to stay on liquids. In five days practically all of them were well.

Q. Do you remember the potencies?
A. I think both of them were 6X.

Testimony of Great Homoeopaths by David Little, Classical Homeopath and author

Many great classical homoeopaths have used homoeopathic remedies to prevent disease. The testimony of such luminaries such as Hahnemann, Hering, Boeinnghausen, Kent, Allen and Boger can be found throughout homoeopathic literature. Here is just a small sampling of the experiences.

1. Hahnemann suggested in Cure and Prevention of Scarlet Fever (18O1) that Belladonna can be used to prevent scarlet fever. In Cause and Prevention of the Asiatic Cholera (1831) Hahnemann noted that the skillful use of Camphor, Cuprum Met and Veratrum Album.can prevent as well as cure cholera.

2. In 1833 Dr. Hering wrote a paper in which he discussed the potenital of Psorine to prevent an infection of the itch miasma (arch. xii, 3).

3. The Baron von Boenninghausen was a keen practitioner of homoeo-prophylaxis. Vide Concerning the Curative Effects of Thuja in Small-pox from Boenninghausen's Lesser Writings. "The decidedly favorable results caused me not only to use the same remedy with all the following small-pox patients, but to also use the same remedy in several houses where small-pox had broken out, as a prophylactic, and lo! also here the result was favorable, and no case came to my knowledge where, after using Thuja, any other member of the family had been infected." After his experiment with Thuja, the Baron went on to study the effects of Hering's nosode made from the small-pox virus, Variolinum. His preventative use of this nosode made from the small-pox virus was very successful. This lead the Baron to say; "Variolinum 200th is far superior to crude vaccination and absolutely safe."

4. In 1884 Dr. Burrnet wrote: "Speaking for myself, I have for the last nine years been in the habit of using vaccine matter (Vaccininum) in the 30 homeopathic centiesimal potency, whenever small-pox was about, and I have thus far not seen any one so far treated get variola".

5. James Taylor Kent wrote in his Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica (page 1000) that the Tuberculin nosode has the potential to prevent TB from infection in those predisposed toward the miasma. "If Tuberculinum bovinum be given in 10m, 50m, and CM potencies, two doses of each at long intervals, all children and young people who have inherited tuberculsosis many be immuned from their inheritance and their resilency will be restored."

6. Willaim Boericke wrote in the Pocket Manuel of Homoeopathic Materia Medica that the Baptisia has a prophylatic power over typhoid, clears carrier of the disease, and could be of service in a iatrogenic typhoid miasma produced by orthodox immunizations. "Baptisia in low dilutions produces a form of anit-bodies to the bacteria typhosus, viz., agglutinins. Thus it raises the natural bodily resistiance to the invasion of the bacilary intoxication, which produces the typhoid syndrome. Typhoid carriers. After inoculation with anti-typhiod serum."

7. Dr. Wheeler suggests that a nosode in 30th potency will provide protection from a specific infectious disease for at least a fortnight.

8. In 1907 Dr Eaton collated the results of several homeopathic doctors in Iowa during a small-pox epidemic and reported the result to a paper read at the American Institute of Homoeopathy.
a. Persons given Variolinum 30c was 2806
b. Definite exposures to small-pox was 547
c. Small cases after taking Variiolinum was 14
d. Efficacy 97%
Of his experience Eation said, "We must not do Homeopathy the injustice of giving this, one of its most sucessful and useful outgrowths, a partial and equivocal recognition, just because it happens to be strange to us. This splendid piece of practice is not new, it has it roots in the past, though we may not have known it. And we must not injure the cause by refusing to recongnise its value just because we happen not to have been coversant with it."

9. Dorothy Shepherd wrote "Nosodes of disease products of the actual disease are often most active preventative". She then goes on to give several examples for her long career. She did clinic trials in boarding schools where epidemics were rampant. References to these experiences can be found in her book, Homeopathy and Epidemic Diseases. She also confirmed the effectiveness of the nosode, Pertussin, in the prevention of whooping cough.

10. Diptherinum was used by Allen for 25 years as a prophylactic and he never saw a case in a person who had contacted the disease. He challenged the profession to test this assertion and publish their failures.

11. This is a quote from C.M Boger on Homeo-prophylaxis from the Homeopathic Recorder under remedy, Psorinum.
"It (psorinum) is useful in suppressed itch, in fact, all nosodes seem to be most successful in types of disease similar to the ones from which they have been derived or in helping to clear up and bring about reaction in imperfectly cured cases of the same disease; thus Tuberculin does its best work in incipient consumption, pneumonia and other respiratory affections which do not react properly. THEY ARE ALSO USED AS PROPHYLATICS, INDUCING A MORE CERTAIN IMMUNITY THAN CAN OTHERWISE BE OBTAINED; this is especially true of Variolinum, the small-pox nosode which I have tested to my entire satisfaction, even allowing unvaccinated persons under its influence to nurse and sleep with the small-pox victim, the children of the family doing the same; out of more than a dozen of such exposures I have not had a single infection".
This is the experience of ye ole homeopath who prepared the Boger's Boenninghausen Repertory, Boger's Synoptic Key and General Analysis in a card file repertory. A man of vast experience. Our generation of homeopaths must investigate the words of such a wise grandfather.

12. Dr. Grimmer, famous for his work in cancer, perfered the use of a single of a high potency which he claimed could provide protection up to a year. This was the fruit of his experience.

13. Dr. P Chavan (Paris 1932) demonstrated the Schick reaction in the laboratory with the unproven nosode Diptherotoxinum 4M and 8M. After one to two months the antitoxins were measured in the blood of those taking the nosode. A Dr. Roux repeated the experiment in 1946 and got the same results. This unproven nosode provided laboratory confirmation of lasting immunity. The blood antitoxins seemed to last up to 5 years with one dose.

14. In August 1974 in Guarantingueta, Brasil there was a severe epidemic of menningitis. 18,640 children were given Menningococcinum 10CH while 6,340 children did not recieve this unproven nosode. Out of the 18, 640 children 4 cases of menningitis developed. Out of the 6,340 children 34 cases were noted. This is the type of clinical trial that will show homeopaths whether nosodes have the potential to prevent epidemic diseases or not.

Genus Epidemicus - the homeopathic approach to epidemics
"Each epidemic has its own selfsame character that is common to all of the individuals who are taken ill. If the character of the epidemic disease is discovered according to the symptom complex common to all the patients, this will point to the homeopathically fitting (specific) remedy for the totality of the cases. This remedy almost always helps in those patients who enjoyed tolerably good health before the epidemic, that is, who were not chronically sick (with developed psora)."

Aphorism 241 in the 6th edition of the "Organon of the Medical Art" by Samuel Hahnemann (as edited by Wenda O'Reilly, PHD)
Note: psora is an old term referring essentially to the predisposition to illness.

This aphorism provides the foundation that, for two centuries, homeopaths have used to develop a homeopathic response to epidemics (see history).
Simply put, practitioners have found that, while treating patients in an epidemic, a core set of symptoms emerges from which an over-arching remedy can be used to treat nearly all cases and which is also used in a prophylactic manner.
Briefly, once this remedy is identified, homeopaths upon seeing a patient will observe whether the patient fits the remedy in whole or in part and be able to quickly prescribe for that patient. Should the presenting patient demonstrate a set of symptoms outside the picture of the remedy, the usual case taking procedures will be necessary.
For the general population not yet evidencing symptoms, the genus epidemicus is given in the hopes of stimulating/strengthening the body's natural defense mechanism.

The genus epidemicus method would apply to all cases from all sources of epidemics whether introduced by man-made or natural causes.

In the current anthrax cases, details have not been provided from a homeopathic perspective, thus it is quite difficult to determine a true genus epidemicus. From the general description of cases and from historical documentation, a "rough draft" of possible remedies can be speculated upon. Symptoms, as understood to date, suggest homeopathic medicine found in the typical medium-to-large homeopathic medicine kit already on the market.

The National Center's crisis team will be working with homeopaths across the country to keep the site current. The Center will use this web site to keep you informed should a specific genus epidemicus emerge.

Definition from Homeopathic Dictionary by Jay Yasgur
Genus epidemicus is the combined symptoms of a large group of people afflicted with a disease or epidemic. This combined symptom list is then used to fund the remedy best suited to treating those persons so afflicted without having to devote the time necessary to repertorize each and every person. It is sort of an 'epidemic simillimum'. The 'remedy epidemicus' is a remedy found to be curative in a majority of people suffering from the same disease (as in epidemics). Thus it is possible to administer the remedy to a vast number of people without taking each personÕs case history. Hahnemann used genus epidemicus in 1799 with an outbreak of scarlet fever."Usually the physician does not immediately perceive the complete picture of the epidemic in the first case that he treats, since each collective disease reveals itself in the totality of its signs and symptoms only after several cases have been closely observed. Nevertheless, an observant physician can often come so close after seeing only one or two patients that he becomes aware of the characteristic picture of the epidemic and can already find its appropriate homeopathic remedy." - Organon, Aphorism 101. Max Stoll (1742-1787) of Swabia and Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), the Father of English Medicine, did seminal work on this subject and could have influenced the thinking of Hahnemann. Sydenham, one of the main founders of epidemiology, espoused his theory of 'epidemic constitutions', maintaining that "contagious diseases are influenced by cosmic or atmospheric influences which may change their type - that they may spring from miasms, from the bowels of the earth, that they may have long periods of evolution and seasonal variations, and that some diseases may be mere variants or subvarieties of others." - History of Medicine, 4th (Garrison, p.270)

NOSODES

The Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia Convention of the United States defines a nosode as "homeopathic attenuations of: pathological organs or tissues; causative agents such as bacteria, fungi, ova, parasites, virus particles, and yeast; disease products; excretions or secretions. Nosodes are prepared according to homeopathic specifications, provided the basic substance is not altered and the final product is not adulterated by pathogens or other deleterious substances. The first attenuation must be rendered sterile". This is a very broad definition that is meant to encompass all biologic pathogens that might have use as homeopathic medicines. The important elements are that the substance should not be altered, and that the delivery form should be non-pathogenic.

Definition from Homeopathic Dictionary by Jay Yasgur
Nosode (Gr. noso, 'disease', eidos, 'from') the potentized homeopathic remedy prepared from diseased tissue or the product of disease. It can be used to prevent or treat a miasm or the associated disease of the tissue material or a miasm, as well as for many other uses. Pyrogenium, Psorinum, and Syphilinum are examples. "Hahnemann was the first man to conceive that the products of disease could be used in the cure of diseases. His preparation, Psorinum, was the first vaccine to be made." - T.T.M. Dishington (1928). "Had Hahnemann been with us today, he would undoubtedly have been first and foremost in the field of 'nosodes' - 'vaccines' - whatever you choose to call them. We know it, for he was already there some eighty years ago, in the first volume of his Chronic Diseases. Lux, Hahnemann, Hering, Swan, Burnett, Heath, were always years ahead, sometimes half a century, of Pasteur, Koch and Wright." - M.L. Tyler. "What do homeopaths want immunizing substances for? We have got much better agents which have been used clinically and proved many years before immunization was ever thought of. We call them nosodes." - More Magic of the Minimum Dose (D. Shepherd).

Back

©2002 National Center for Homeopathy, All Rights Reserved