A SYNOPSIS OF SAMUEL HAHNEMANN'S MASTERWORK

1 The homoeopath's highest and only calling is to restore health to the sick (HEALING).
2 HEALING should be accomplished in the most speedy, gentle and reliable manner.
3 To do this, he/she must know the state of the patient, select the correct remedy, dose and repetition according to each individual case.
4 Every homoeopath must have a good understanding of what causes and sustains illness and how to eliminate it from healthy people.
5 To cure a patient, the homoeopath must discover the occurrence of the exciting/underlying cause through understanding the individuality of thepatient - her/his constitution (mentals, emotions, physicals etc.).
6 The unprejudiced observer must be fully aware of the central state through perceptible signs.
7 In every individual case of disease, the totality of the symptoms must be the homoeopath's principal concern.
8 After symptoms and perceptible signs of disease are eliminated, health remains.
9 In the state of health, the vital force is in total control so the organism can reach its higher purpose.
10 The vital force animates the material body and, when it leaves the body, the body dies.
11 The disturbance of the vital force presents as symptoms.
12 The un-tuned vital force causes disease and health is restored when we tune the vital force.
13 The allopathic view of disease as separate from the living whole has made it a non-human science (with the exception of surgery).
14 Every imbalance of the central state will present itself in symptoms to the observant homoeopath.
15 The diseased central state and the outward symptoms are one and the same.
16 The vital force can only be restored to its normal state by giving a remedy which has a similar acting dynamical power.
17 The homoeopath has only to remove the totality of symptoms to retune the central state.
18 The totality of symptoms and circumstances observed in each individual case, is the only method which will guide us as to the choice of remedy.
19 Medicines can cure disease only if they possess the power to alter the way a person feels and functions.
20 It is only by experiencing the remedies in action that we can be aware of their power.
21 Remedies provoke a number of definite symptoms in the healthy (provings).
22 For the disease to be cured, a remedy must be sought that has a tendency to produce similar or opposite symptoms.
23 Allopathic suppression by medicines of the opposite symptom causes the disease to return with renewed intensity.
24 Only the homoeopathic method of applying remedies to diseases promises to be helpful.
25 A remedy's action on healthy humans that has produced the greatest number of symptoms similar to the disease being treated, is the only one that will cure.
26 In the living organism, a weaker dynamic affection is permanently extinguished by a stronger one, one which may be similar.
27 Curative remedies depend on their symptoms being similar to those of the disease but superior to it in strength.
28 Experience has proved the natural law of healing, making scientific explanations of little importance.
29 When the correct remedy is administered, that is similar but stronger than the natural disease, the natural one is extinguished and no longer exists.
30 Remedies are more powerful than the actual disease, especially since the dosage can be controlled.
31 Environmental influences to which we are exposed only affect those susceptible.
32 Allopathic medicines cause symptoms in all people, unlike natural diseases.
33 Medicinal forces alter human health absolutely and unconditionally, unlike natural disease agents.
34 The medicine must be stronger and have the greatest possible similarity to the natural disease being treated in order to destroy it.
35 Neither nature nor medicines, no matter how strong, can truly cure disease if they are dissimilar.
36 If two dissimilar diseases meet in the same patient, either equally strong , or if the first is more strong than the second, the more recent is repelled.
37 Old chronic diseases remain uncured when not treated homoeopathically.
38 With all dissimilar diseases, the stronger suspends the weaker, but they never cure each other.
39 Allopathy suppresses and suspends the trouble without curing it, and with prolonged use adds a new disease condition.
40 Two dissimilar diseases cannot extinguish each other.
41 Prolonged allopathic treatment can form a complex disease, which can only be cured with the greatest difficulty.
42 The co-existence of two or three diseases can occur, each occupying the organs and system with which they have affinity.
43 Cure takes place in nature when two similar diseases meet.
44 Two similar diseases cannot ward off, suspend or co-exist in the same organism.
45 The stronger destroys the weaker and takes over those parts of the organism until then affected by the weaker one.
46 Therefore cure can be obtained by similar diseases.
47 As with natural law, the best way to cure surely, rapidly and permanently is to use remedies with similar symptoms.
48 To cure, the similar remedy prescribed needs to be slightly stronger.
49 Observers must be more attentive to natural cures.
50 The one great natural law of healing is: cure by means of symptom similarity.
51 Homoeopathic remedies work safely and gently when they are only slightly stronger than the similar natural disease they treat.
52 There are only two main modes of treatment, the homoeopathic and allopathic which are direct opposites.
53 The pure homoeopathic method of healing is the only correct one.
54 Allopathic treatment is presumptuous, has a material view of disease and uses compound prescriptions and other dangerous treatments.
55 Allopathy maintained credibility with people because of its ability for palliative relief.
56 This palliative method, in which the patient is deceived with almost instantaneous improvement, should be shunned, along with isopathy.
57 The orthodox physician treats a single symptom with its opposite.
58 This method treats only a small part of the disease, and after a short amelioration, causes an aggravation of the whole disease.
59 The salient symptoms of a long-standing disease have never been treated in a palliative way without reappearing worse than before.
60 Increasing the dose of an allopathic medicine never cures the disease and an even worse complaint arises.
61 The great truth is that real and lasting cure can be obtained based on symptom similarity and the smallest possible curative dose.
62 These results, although so evident, had not been explored prior to Hahnemann endeavours.
63 Every stimulus affecting the vital force (primary action) causes its life-preserving reaction (secondary action or counter-action).
64 Upon reception of the stimulus, the vital force is forced to act in a counter-active, or curative, mode.
65 A stimulus (primary action) alters the condition of the body and the vital force produces, in a secondary action, the opposite condition.
66 Small dose homoeopathic remedies produce a subtle, inconspicuous action of healing.
67 Nature and experience explain to us the benefits of homoeopathic cure and the absurdity of allopathic treatment.
68 The remedy gives the vital force the energy required to cure itself completely, inclusive of any slight medicinal disease which may remain.
69 The disease symptom becomes worse after the duration of action of the allopathic palliative has lapsed.
70 Homoeopathic remedies which produce reactions similar to the disease can cure, whereas allopathic medicines producing dissimilar or opposite reactions, cannot cure.
71 To cure a disease, the physician must know about the disease, how the remedies work, and how to prescribe the remedies most effectively.
72 Acute diseases are rapid, run their course, and end quickly; whereas chronic disease removes health gradually, often unnoticed, and the vital energy can never extinguish it on its own.
73 The exciting causes of acute diseases (including sporadic or epidemic) include physical influences, psychic agitation, the environment and acute miasms.
74 Chronic diseases include symptoms artificially created by the violent dissimilar prolonged use of allopathic treatments.
75 The result of allopathic treatment is the most incurable of all the chronic diseases.
76 This debilitation can only be removed by the life force itself, if given the opportunity to work undisturbed.
77 Diseases from self-inflicted disturbances should not be called chronic, and go away on their own with improved living conditions.
78 Natural chronic diseases from a chronic miasm will continue to increase indefinitely, despite ideal living conditions and a strong physical constitution.
79 The chronic miasms, syphilis and sycosis, are not removed by the vital force when untreated.
80 More important is the psora miasm, which is the underlying cause of disease forms not due to syphilis or sycosis, and shows itself as a characteristic skin eruption.
81 The psoric state produces disease forms which have previously been mistaken as independent diseases.
82 The homoeopath must collate the totality of the individual's psoric disease to decide whether it is acute or chronic in nature.

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Taking the Case:

83 The homoeopath must be attentive and faithfully record the individual nature of the case.
84 The physician must observe carefully with all senses and write everything down exactly, with minimal interruption.
85 The symptoms must be listed in a spaced format for subsequent additions.
86 From the list of symptoms, the homoeopath then asks for additional clarification.
87 The homoeopath must not ask leading questions or questions requiring Yes/No answers.
88 If nothing is forthcoming, ask open-ended questions.
89 Once the patient has finished speaking, the physician may ask more specific questions.
90 The homoeopath also records his observations of the patient.
91 In order to get a true picture of the disease, the patient should not have any traces of medicines in his system.
92 If the above is not possible, the physician must consider the state as it is,even if altered by medicine.
93 Shameful causations of disease may need careful questioning of the patient privately.
94 The homoeopath must evaluate the environmental influences surrounding the patient, and remove negative stimuli to help the cure.
95 Attention must be paid to many small concomitant circumstances, which are very significant and decisive in search for the remedy.
96 Patients are of widely varying temperaments and therefore may exaggerate expressions to encourage the homoeopath to help them.
97 There are others who under-emphasise their complaints.
98 A high degree of tact, patience, consideration and knowledge of human nature is required.
99 Case-taking, in acute cases or recently acquired diseases, is easier because it is fresh in the memory.
100 The picture tells the story, not the given name of any epidemic.
101 The characteristic picture of the epidemic can become evident to a carefully investigating homeopath after seeing only 1 or 2 patients, and therefore is easy to prescribe.
102 To define the disease, the totality of the diseases' symptoms can only be seen via the same peculiar symptoms in patients of a variety of constitutions.
103 The totality of symptoms of such a miasmic chronic disease, especially psora can be established only from, many individual cases.
104 If the totality of symptoms are exactly recorded, then on subsequent consultation omit what has been cured, note what is still present and add any new developments.

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PROVINGS

105 The homeopath must find the similar remedy for cure
106 Full knowledge of a remedy's actions on healthy provers must be known
107 Conclusive effects cannot be obtained by prescribing to sick people
108 The remedy's power of cure is revealed by changes in health observed
during provings.
109 Homeopathic use of remedies is the only way to cure human diseases
110 Symptoms from poisonings are indicative of their homeopathic curative action and agree with those from provings. (move to proving section)
111 Remedies alter the healthy human body according to fixed natural laws, and it is by these lws that each remedy can produce reliable symptoms that are characteristic of it.
112 The small homoeopathic dose eliminates the aggravation and restores
health.
113 Narcotics in their primary action take away sensation and irritability, but in moderate doses in the healthy, it can increase in sensitivity and irritability during the secondary action (an aggravation)
114 In the healthy, one can notice primary effects of the medicine, with the
exception of narcotics.
115 The primary action of some remedies may show an opposite reaction, and should not be considered as an aggravation but an alternating action.
116 Some symptoms are produced by provings frequently and some less
frequently.
117 The variable symptoms depend upon the individuals susceptibility to disease.
118 Each remedy acts in a unique way.
119 Because each remedy is unique, the homoeopath must know the individual nature of the remedy for true cure.
120 Provings help distinguish remedies so the homoeopath can then prescribe accurately.
121 The effects of the mother tincture can be revealed on a healthy person,
taking into account individual susceptibility.
122 The well being of future generations depends upon this knowledge.
123 Provers should take no other medicinal substance during experimentation.
124 Provings should be made from mother tincture, without addition of any other foreign substances
125 Food and drink intake must be simple, non stimulating and carefully regulated during a proving so as not to interfere with the course of the remedy
126 The prover selected must be of healthy mind and body.
127 Remedies must be proven by both sexes
128 To reveal the full hidden powers of a remedy, it must be potentised to the 30th potency, and taken upon an empty stomach, daily for several days
129 Provings commence with a small dose and increase individual doses if necessary until the effects have become clear.
130 The order of symptoms may appear from only one dose, and the duration of the remedy's action will become known after comparing the results of several provings.
131 The action of the remedy becomes confused when a prover must take
increasing doses on successive days.
132 A daily increased dose(given for several days) will reveal the symptoms only, not the duration.
133 When symptoms appear, determine their exact character and modalities.
134 Different symptoms of a remedy appear in different provers according to
individuality.
135 Multiple tests on suitable persons of both sexes with various constitutions are needed to fully prove the remedy
136 Symptoms that are rarely brought forth in the proving can be cured in a sick person by the law of similars
137 Provers are selected for their sensitivity, and if the dose is too large an aggravation may occur, which will cloud the picture.
138 If the prover has an occurrence of previous dispositions this must be attributed to the remedy being proved.
139 Detailed, daily proving notes must be made.
140 If the prover is unable to write, a responsible person must be allocated to record notes.
141 The best proving are self-provings done by homoeopaths upon
themselves.
142 Symptom analysis must be left to the observant homoeopath.

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Materia Medica

143 A true Materia Medica is a collection of real, pure and reliable modes of
action by simple medicinal substances.
144 Only carefully and honestly interrogated records are entered into the
Materia Medica.
145 Although the Materia Medica is not yet complete, a thorough knowledge of it will find a fitting remedy for all but a few cases.

Homoeopathic Treatment of Diseases

146 Homoeopathic cure of natural diseases relates to giving the most expedient remedy which has been proved on healthy individuals for their pure action.
Strange, Rare and Peculiar

147 The homoeopathic remedy is similar to the totality of symptoms of a disease - like cures like.
148 A similar but stronger remedy brings the life force back into tune, acutes pass away in a few hours, older chronic diseases pass away somewhat later.
149 Complicated chronic diseases take more time for recovery when treated homoeopathically, but when treated allopathically may become incurable.
150 A recently appearing symptom could be cured by merely adjusting diets, and environmental factors.
151 If an intense symptom is produced and accompanied with several other minor symptoms, this will complete the picture of disease.
152 Remedies for acute diseases are found more easily where there are numerous and striking symptoms.
153 The strange rare and peculiar symptoms are the most important in the search for a homeopathic remedy.
154 The most fitting remedy has the greatest number of characteristic symptoms with the strange, rare and peculiar being the most important

Aggravations

155 The most similar remedy corresponding to the symptoms of the disease will have a gentle healing action on the diseased parts of the body and have no side effects
156 Remedies usually produce at least one small new symptom in sensitive people
157 The remedy will produce an aggravation similar to the original disease if the dose is too high.
158 If an aggravation is shown in the first hours it will indicate that the acute disease will be cured by the first dose.
159 The smaller dose produces smaller aggravations in acute diseases.
160 Aggravations must not be misunderstood and are the process of cure.
161 Chronic disease treated with small homoeopathic doses only have an aggravation towards the end of treatment. (ref Aphorism # 158)

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Treating Disease with An Inadequate Stock of Medicines

162 Because there are only a limited number of proven remedies, a less perfect remedy could be used.
163 While mild side effects can appear from an inappropriate remedy, they do not hinder a good start towards cure.
164 Unusual characteristic symptoms in the both the disease and remedy will lead to cure without ill effects
165 A remedy that shares common but not characteristic or peculiar symptoms in both the disease and the remedy will not work homeopathically.
166 If an incorrect remedy is chosen, it's bad consequences can be reduced as soon as an accurately similar remedy is found.
167 In the case of acute disease, if the incorrect remedy is chosen, don't wait for it to exhaust it's action, but re examine the original symptoms with newly arisen ones.
168 Ongoing re-evaluations of the remaining disease are made, and the most similar remedy prescribed each time until perfect health is found.
169 Where two remedies contend for preference, do not give the second remedy without re-evaluating the case.
170 Sometimes, but rarely when re-evaluating the case, the second choice remedy is still indicated in preference to another remedy, and deserves to be employed.
171 In non veneral chronic diseases, (that arise from psora), several anti psoric remedies in succession will be required to aid cure.
172 Where there are not enough symptoms in the disease, the prescription is unlikely to be perfect.
173 Diseases that only display one or two principle symptoms are called one sided and are chiefly classed as chronic.
174 The principal symptom can either be internal or external (a local disease).
175 Prescribing one sided diseases on an internal symptom only is usually the result of bad case taking.
176 There are rare cases, which present only a few strong intense symptoms.
1 77 Guided by these few symptoms, the most similar remedy must be chosen.
178 Cure will be obtained if striking, characteristic, peculiar symptoms are matched.
179 However, the more frequently the remedy will be only partially appropriate due to the lack of symptoms.
180 The remedy best selected for the one sided disease will bring forward the underlying symptoms not previously seen but are part of the disease.
181 New symptoms now visible belong to the disease itself and were exposed by the remedy given and must be treated as a whole.
182 These newly revealed symptoms indicate the next remedy needed.
183 A second prescription should be based on this new, more complete group of symptoms.
After each dose of medicine has exhausted it's action, this process (Aphorism 180 - 183) is repeated until cure is achieved.

One sided Diseases with an External Main Symptom

185 External disease are not to be treated solely, as in allopathy.
186 Significant injuries require both mechanical removal or treatment (allopathy) together with dynamic aid (homoepathic) to assist with cure.
187 External diseases not caused by external damage arise from the central disturbance and should not be treated surgically.
188 These external diseases are not separate from the rest of the organism.
189 No external ailment can grow worse without an inner cause.
190 All genuine homeopathic treatment must be directed towards the whole disease and not just it's local symptoms in order to cure quickly and effectively.
191 If the correct homoeopathic remedy is prescribed for the totality, the external changes will disappear and the whole person will be cured.
192 The homoeopath must trace out the complete disease picture with the totality of symptoms before selecting the remedy.
193 The remedy must be given internally and will simultaneously cure both the local disease and the general disease state in the organism.
194 External diseases should not be treated by external application, even of the most similar remedy, as their origin is from an inner cause and will respond most reliably to the internally prescribed similimum.
195 When the acute flare up has been treated, the chronic local disease should be treated with the appropriate antipsoric remedy.
196 Logical thought would indicate that the correct remedy could be applied internally and externally.
197 The application of a remedy both internally and externally has a serious disadvantage because the external application causes the local disease to disappear from sight and deceives us with the appearance of complete cure.
198 Topical applications alone lift the chief symptom and then leave no discernable symptoms to then prescribe on.
199 Surgery and burning of the external local symptoms also removes the characteristics of the disease from our observation
200 Treating homoeopathically, that is, internally rather than by removal of external symptoms, we can monitor the true progress towards cure.
201 When the vital force cannot overcome a chronic disease it forms an external disease to protect the impact on the major organs.
202 If the local disease symptom is suppressed, the internal disease increases
203 An external suppression without curing the internal miasmatic disease is the most common source of chronic ailments which have been created by the dominant allopathic treatment.


Chronic Miasms

204 Had we treated the three chronic miasms (that is syphilis, sycosis and psora) homoeopathically, the number of chronic diseases would be greatly reduced.
205 When the underlying miasm is cured, primary and secondary symptoms spontaneously disappear as well.
206 Before commencing treatment of chronic disease, the physician must differentiate the miasmatic picture as an overlying venereal miasm can affect the treatment of the underlying psora.
207 The physician still has to elicit any previous allopathic treatments to understand the degeneration of the original disease condition.
208 The patient's susceptibility and external influences, which may interfere with treatment, must be considered.
209 Subsequently the most similar remedy is given to commence treatment based on the most striking symptoms.

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Mental and Emotional Diseases

210 The patient's mental and emotional states are vital aspects of diagnosis and can vary during treatment.
211 The state of the patient's disposition is the decisive factor in choosing the remedy.
212 Any medicinal substance has the ability to produce changes in an individual, whether healthy or diseased.
213 The presenting mental and emotional changes direct the physician to the correct similar remedy.
214 Mental and emotional diseases are to be cured in exactly the same way as all other diseases.
215 As the tangible disease increases, the symptoms move away from the physical realm and into the mental realm.
216 A life threatening so-called physical disease can deteriorate into insanity/mania, which removes the threat to life.
217 To treat this one sided state; the physician must identify the individuality of the case.
218 As the mental disease progresses, a detailed history must be taken of the patient before the disease degenerated.
219 Periodically, as mental symptoms subside, the physical symptoms will re-present.
220 The detailed history together with the presenting symptoms provides a complete picture of the disease from which the similar remedy can be prescribed.
221 With an acute mental flare-up, the appropriate acute remedy must be given in high potency.
222 The acute remedy does not cure the underlying miasm.
223 The mental illness is almost certain to recur in a more prolonged serious form if the anti-miasmatic treatment is not given.
224 Any physical symptom which progresses into the deep mental realm cannot be assisted by counselling; however, mental states caused by external influences may benefit from such counselling.
225 Mental illness can also be produced from prolonged emotional disturbances, which often greatly harm the physical.
226 Before these emotional disturbances become too deep, they can be alleviated by counselling.
227 An undeveloped psoric miasm underlies these cases and anti-miasmic remedies should be given.
228 Mentally and emotionally ill patients should be treated with calm and firmness and without reproach.
229 The physician will find the treatment more beneficial where he has given the appearance of believing the patient to be sane, as it prevents aggravations of the condition.
230 Homeopathic treatment can produce rapid and striking results in the case of mental and emotional disease.

Intermittent Diseases

231 It is important to look at diseases that come and go (Intermittent) as well as when one disease alternates with another (Alternate).
232 The alternating diseases are chronic diseases produced by psora, or less often, a complicated syphilitic miasm, and should be treated miasmatically.
233 Intermittent diseases, febrile and nonfebrile, return at fairly definite intervals.
234 The apparently nonfebrile intermittent diseases are always chronic and purely psoric, but may also need to be treated with Cinchona to extinguish the periodicity.
235 Intermittent fevers often have two or three opposite alternating states; hot, cold, and sweat, which should be treated as homoeopathically as possible and the chief guide to the remedy is the symptoms when the patient is free from fever.
236 The remedy should be administered immediately or, very soon after the attack, when the patient has begun to recover. Giving the remedy immediately before attack can have serious effects.
237 If the interval between attacks is very short, or distorted by traces of the previous attack, the remedy must be given when the sweating begins to abate.
238 Frequently a single dose will not cure and it will be necessary to repeat the remedy, which may need to be succussed; also the effect of the environment must be taken into consideration if the disease recurs.
239 Almost every medicine produces a fever, therefore a homeopathic remedy can be found for all the different types of fever occurring naturally.
240 If the fever resists treatment, a psoric miasm is in the background and must be treated accordingly.
241 Each individual epidemic has its own consistent nature that guides us to a single remedy for all, unless they are chronic sufferers from psora.
242 If the fever is not treated effectively, any underlying psoric miasm may take on the appearance of the intermittent fever and need to be treated with Sulph. or Hepar Sulph. in high potency.
243 In very serious fevers an acute remedy will not suffice and an anti-psoric remedy must be administered.
244 One or two doses of highly potentised Cinchona can act as a prophylactic for people with a healthy lifestyle exposed to marshy regions, however, if this is not successful they must be treated anti-psorically or leave the marsh lands.

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Case Management

245 Remedies - the method of using them and the regimen to be observed when taking them.
246 While improvement continues, no additional medicine must be given (especially in acute cases). However in chronic cases a single dose can complete the action, but slowly, over a period of up to 100 days. For a more rapid and gentle cure, select an accurate remedy, highly potentised, dissolved in water and given in small doses at intervals, and the degree of potency of each dose must be different from the previous and following dose.
247 The organism does not accept identical doses without aggravation, but slightly heightened potencies bring the life force closer to cure without ill effect.
248 In chronic cases remedies are potentised anew by 8 - 12 succussions each time before being taken, daily or every other day. In acute cases the remedy can be given every 6,4,3 or 2 hours, or hourly or more frequently in the most urgent cases.
In chronic diseases homeopathic medicine even of a long acting nature can be repeated daily for months.
In both cases continue while steady improvement is felt, but when a significant symptom appears which the patient has never before had, then another remedy is more homeopathically appropriate.
249 If a severe aggravation from an inappropriate remedy occurs, an antidote must be given before the next remedy, however, antidotes should not be necessary if a small dose is used initially.
250 The homeopath is duty bound to select a new appropriate remedy if deterioration occurs.
251 Some remedies such as Ignatia, Bryona, Rhus Tox and to a degree Belladonna, which produce proving alternating actions with opposing symptoms, require repeated administration.
252 In chronic cases that do not improve with homeopathic treatment look for an obstacle in the patient's way of life or environment that must be eliminated to achieve permanent cure.
253 If there is no improvement visible to the eye of the physical state, it is necessary to evaluate the mental demeanour for any change; the closer the patient's mentals are to their natrual state, the more successful the remedy.
254 An observant homeopath will see changes of aggravation or amelioration in the symptom picture.
255 On reviewing the case notes with the patient, if no obvious physical improvement has occurred yet the mental state is positively altered, this indicates the fault lies with the patient's external influences.
256 Alternatively, if the patient complains of significant new symptoms, these may belong to the remedy, which was not homeopathically correct.
257 Beware of the usually tried and true remedies because there may be other less common remedies which would be more homoeopathically correct.
258 Do not avoid the remedies previously used incorrectly, as on a later occasion they may be homeopathically correct, for the symptoms currently arising.
259 Because remedies are so subtle, it is advisable to remove any substance that may interfere with the remedy's action.
The removal of these substances tends to be more important for chronic patients as they are often more aggravated by them.
261 In chronic disease, outdoor exercise and a healthy lifestyle are all beneficial to cure.
262 In acute diseases, the body will tell the patient what is needed by cravings.
263 Gratification of these desires within moderation will not interfere with the appropriate homeopathic remedy.

Preparation of Medicine

264 The homeopathic remedies must be authentic and in perfect condition.
265 Homeopaths should prepare their own remedies and personally give them to their patients.
266 Substances from the animal and vegetable kingdoms are most medicinally active in their crude state.
267 Remedies are obtained from plants by steeping in alcohol, and will remain well preserved if stored away from sunlight in airtight containers.
268 Do not accept powdered forms of exotic plants, barks, seeds and roots on trust, but ensure they are genuine when still in crude unpowdered form.
269 Homoeopathic remedies operate using dynamic energy, which is harnessed by the process of potentisation.
270 Hand preparation using dilution and succussion gives full power to the crude substance and releases the invisible, spirit-like medicinal power.
(Refer to the fully written Organon for details of this process)
271 The trituration process is also to be used for dry or oily substances,

Administration of Medicines

272 A remedy taken dry on the tongue reaches only a few nerve endings and has a lesser effect on the system than if taken after being mixed with sugar of milk and dissolved in water, which spreads over the whole nerve area.
273 It is (forbidden) to give the patient more than one remedy at a time but this rule excludes substances which are joined by chemical affinity.
274 If more than one remedy is given at a time the effect of each remedy becomes clouded.
275 Too large a dose even if homeopathically correct, can harm the patient by acting too strongly on the vital force.
276 Frequently repeated too strong doses of a homeopathic medicine (ie gross physical quantities of a toxin) can endanger the patient's life or make his disease almost incurable.
277 The remedy is more beneficial if the dose matches the smallest degree for gentle action.
278 Observing individual susceptibility of the patient will determine how small the dose should be.
279 No dose of the potentised similar remedy can be made so small that it is not stronger than the natural disease, that it cannot at least partially extinguish it, and start the process of cure.
280 While the patient is experiencing a mild return of one or more of his old symptoms, the potency can be gradually increased, as this indicates a positive direction of cure.
281 Continue with a placebo prescription to confirm whether more action is required.
282 If there is a noticeable heightening of the original disease symptoms (aggravation), then the dose was too large.
283 Giving the smallest doses can prevent aggravations, and the slight harm done can be quickly overcome.
284 Remedies can also be inhaled and absorbed through the skin and through breast-feeding.
285 External application of the similimum can be beneficial but can suppress symptoms .

Other Therapeutic Approaches

286 Magnets, electricity and galvanism have curative powers, but it has not been proven that electricity and galvanism have more than just a palliative effect.
287 Magnetic poles can be employed in homeopathic treatment.
288 Mesmerisation also affect the vital force.
289 Positive mesmerism adds to the vital force; negative mesmerism removes an accumulation of negative energy from the vital force.
290 Body massages should not be overdone on patients who are physically oversensitive
291 Bathing can be beneficial at the right temperature and timing for the patient, but is only palliative.