SIR JOHN WEIR, (1879-1971)
Born in
Paisley
Renfrewshire,
Scotland, Dr Weir was
to become Physician Royal to
King George V ,
King Edward VIII ,
King George VI ,
Queen Elizabeth II, and
King Haakon VII of
Norway.
Weir received his
medical education first at
Glasgow University
and then in
Chicago under the
tutelage of Dr
James Tyler Kent of
Hering Medical College along with Drs Harold Fergie Woods and
Douglas Borland.
Weir returned to
the London Homeopathic Hospital as Consultant Physician in
1910, and was appointed the Compton-Burnett Medical College as
Professor of Materia Medica in 1911. He rose to become
President of the Faculty of Homeopathy in 1923.
Weir reputedly
first learned of homeopathy through his contact with Dr
Robert Gibson Miller (1862-1919) head of
the
Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital.
It was Dr Gibson Miller who advised Sir John Weir to go to the
USA.
Weir spoke on
homeopathy before the
Royal Society of Medicine in
1932, and was knighted by King George V that same year. The
renovated
Manchester Homoeopathic
Institute and Dispensary was opened in Oxford Street
by Sir John Weir in May 1939. Weir said in an “address:
homeopathic remedies do not act directly on disease; they
merely stimulate the vital reactions of the patient, and this
causes him to cure himself.” Having advanced through all
levels of the
Royal Victorian Order he was,
as a rare distinction, awarded the
Royal Victorian Chain in
1947, possibly as a mark of the medical care he gave
to the ailing King George VI.
PUBLICATIONS
-
Homeopathy and
its Importance in Treatment of Chronic Disease, (1915)
-
The Trend of
Modern Medicine, (1922)
-
The Science and
Art of Homeopathy, Brit Homeo Journal (1925)
-
The Present Day
Attitude of the Medical Profession towards Homeopathy, Brit
Homoeo Journal.
-
Homeopathy: a
System of Therapeutics (1928)
-
Homeopathy: an
Explanation of its Principles (1932)
-
British
Homeopathy during the Last 100 Years, Brit Homoeo Journal.
-
Samuel Hahnemann
and his Influence on Medical Thought.
-
Hahnemann on
Homeopathic Philosophy (1935)
-
Sir John Weir,
Dr Margaret Tyler Obituary, Brit. Homoeo. Journal.
Dr. MARGARET LUCY
TYLER (1857-1943)
Dr. Margaret Lucy Tyler
Margaret Tyler
was a key figure in British homeopathy at the beginning
of the twentieth century. Her love and dedication to
homeopathy is evidenced by the fact that she worked in the
London Homeopathic Hospital for over forty years.
With money she inherited from her father she set up the
Sir Henry James Tyler Scholarship Fund which sent
several physicians, including D. Borland, and John
Weir, to study with Kent between the years of 1908 to
1913. Kent was her protégé, although she never
studied with him.
IMPORTANT
CONTRIBUTIONS
v
Her book
Homeopathic Drug Pictures is the fruit of a lifetime
of experience; it is a magnum opus that was written in just
under ten years. All her books bear testimony to her vast and
insightful knowledge.
v
Pointers to the
common remedies.
v
Dr. Margeret
Tyler introduced the eliminating method of
Repertorisation etc.
v
A Review of
“Kent’s Repertory” presented before Kent.
v
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v
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“Repertorising”
by DR. Margaret Tyler & Dr.
John Weir is also included in
Repertory of the Homoeopathic
Materia Medica by J. T. Kent.
“Repertorising”
by
DR. Margaret Tyler & Dr. John Weir is an invaluable
gift to homoeopathic world. This book is mainly dealing with
the grading of symptoms; which is very important
in Repertorisation & in finding a similimum.
This book also
deals with the importance of eliminating symptoms.
Symptoms which help to eliminate some unimportant medicine to
facilitate the selection of the similimum are called
eliminative symptoms. These symptoms are best to start with in
Repertorising a case.
This book also
incorporated Dr. Gibson Miller’s Hot & Cold remedies
(extracted from Dr. Kent’s works) & some cases
to show the method of working.
Every individual
will work the Repertory in accordance with his ability, in
accordance with his tendencies, in accordance with his
mentality, & his work done with it will show his personality.
Success in Repertorising depends on ability to deal with
symptoms; & this has to be taught, it is not innate.
The first
essential to use the Repertory is to know the whole case. If
lacking the totality, even though we know perfectly well the
symptoms & where to find them, we will be in confusion.
Without the knowledge of what you seek, without all important
grading of symptoms, life is too short for using the Repertory
as your habitual guide in prescribing.
Symptoms are of
two orders:
v
Those
general to the patient as a
whole (Kent’s
generals).
v
Those
particular, to some part of him
(Kent’s particulars).
GRADING OF
SYMPTOMS
ü
MENTAL SYMPTOMS:
Among
the generals, symptoms of the first grade are,
if well marked, the mental symptoms. These take the
highest rank & strongly indicated mental symptoms
will always rule out any number of poorly marked symptoms
of lesser grade. The mental symptoms always provide
that they are very definite & well marked, are the most
important symptoms of the case.
But even the
mental symptoms are graded. Of highest importance are those
which relate to the WILL with love & hates, suspicions &
fears. Of econd grade are thoe that affect the UNDERSTANDING,
with delusions & delirium. Of lowest grade are those relating
to MEMORY.
ü
REACTIONS, as a
whole TO BODILY ENVIRONMENT: to
times & seasons, to heat & cold, to damp & dry, to storm &
tempest, to position, pressure, motion, jar, touch etc.
But they have got to be in capitals or italics in the patient
as well as in Repertory, to take this rank; or to safely used,
some of them, as eliminating symptoms.
ü
CRAVINGS &
AVERSIONS (3rd grade general symptoms):
They must not be
mere likes & dislikes, but longings & loathing.
ü
MENSTRUAL STATE in
women,
i.e.,
general aggravation of symptoms
before, during & after menses.
ü
PARTICULARS:
Consider them last for these symptoms are
really of minor importance.
For example, in a great railway system, replacing of rolling
stock & repair of few yards of permanent way are less vital to
the company than the brain quality of its general manager.
Make the executive of the company efficient, & it will deal in
the best way with details.
Go for the patient
as a live entity, revealed by his generals & mental symptoms
in chief; deal with him according to the law of similars & he
will do the rest. The whole is greater than the parts.
Never juggle
with particulars at the expense of the life of the
whole.
But in their
position of secondary importance you must go into particulars
if only to confirm your choice of drug.
Among the particulars the first
grade symptom will always be anything
peculiar, or unusual or unexpected or unaccountable.
A general symptom
is the one that refers to the patient as a whole, and of which
he can say “I” instead of “MY”.
Where the patient says “MY” instead of “I” it is
particular.
The Generals &
Particulars may not be quiet different, but they be
flatly contradictory in the same patient. For example,
Arsenicum is worse from cold but the headache of
Arsenicum is better from cold; Lycopodium is a warm
remedy in main, yet its stomach symptoms are ameliorated by
hot food & drinks. Even though this is a particular
symptom, it is a peculiar symptom strongly
diagnostic of one drug.
ü
COMMON SYMPTOMS:
A
symptom may be common to all cases of a certain disease, &
therefore of no great use in picking out the individual remedy
for a particular case of that disease; or it may be common to
a very great number of drugs & so very little use in
Repertorising.
ELIMINATING
SYMPTOMS
Eliminating
symptoms
are symptoms which help to eliminate some unimportant
medicines to facilitate the selection of the similimum. If we
get a marked eliminating symptom to begin with, we have only
to carry down comparatively small number of drugs & it is
easier & quicker to get the remedy. You will generally find
that one drug stands out more & more pre-eminently- it may not
be in all rubrics, but it has got to be in all the important
ones, i.e., those best marked in the patient & of highest
grade. Without the aid of eliminating symptom some half a
dozen drugs will come out pretty near one another when you
count up at the end & that your traveaux d’ Hercule
will leave you unconvinced & still in doubt.
Before opening the
Repertory, we must eliminate all the symptoms dependent on
gross lesions, & thus in some measure reduce the risk. Be sure
that symptoms taken are peculiar to, & characteristic of, the
patient himself- not merely secondary to disease. But it is
good to diagnose a case because we cannot eliminate symptoms
dependent on a disease which we haven’t diagnosed.
TECHNIQUES OF
REPERTORISATION
v
Old method ( using
plain paper sheet )
v
Modern Method (
using repertorial sheet )
Whether we use old or new method,
two basic
logical processes
are involved.
They are:-
a) Total
addition process, and
b) Eliminating process.
ELIMINATION METHOD
(ARTISTIC METHOD)
Dr. Margeret Tyler introduced this method. In this
method the symptoms are arranged in a hierarchy in accordance
to the schools of philosophy of the selected repertory.
Eliminating symptoms are those symptoms which throw of all the
medicines that are not needed for the patient and bring only
those medicines which are required for the patient.
The eliminating symptom is very important in the exercise of
repertorisation because it dictates & determines the medicines
that compete for the mantle of the similimum. It acts as safe
shortcut to the prescription in the hands of the experienced
physician.
Elimination
methods:
v
Single step
elimination
v
Cascading
elimination
SINGLE STEP
ELIMINATION
The elimination
of the medicine is done only once, at the beginning of the
exercise.
The most prominently characteristic symptom is selected as the
eliminating symptom. The medicines indicated for this are
noted down. For the next rubric / symptom, only these
medicines which are common to the eliminating symptom are
considered.
Medicines outside the eliminating symptom _ whatever be its
grade is not considered for repertorisation.
CASCADING
ELIMINATION
In this
method elimination is carried out through the
whole process.
Each symptom became the eliminating symptom for the next
symptom.
Extreme caution & care should be taken in structuring the
hierarchy of symptoms.
The symptoms have to be arranged in the descending order of
importance.
The medicines in the first symptom / rubrics are noted down,
for the second symptom only the medicines covers the first
symptom are considered. On working out the third symptom only
the medicines those are indicated against the second symptom
are selected. So first symptom is the eliminating to second
symptom, second symptom is eliminating for third symptom and
so on. Thus each symptom is the eliminating symptom for the
next symptom.
A
few cautions may be borne in mind, namely,
1) If evaluation of symptom is not strictly practiced,
eliminating process would prove disastrous.
2) Hierarchy of symptoms should be adequately accurate.
3) However important the rubrics may be, do not take it
for the use of eliminating process if it has only one or a few
medicines.
4) Preferably generals should be used for the purpose.
If the above
cautions are followed properly, eliminating process will be
the most suitable working method for the purpose of Repertorisation.
It is time saving, less confusing and easy to practice.
DR. GIBSON MILLER’
HOT & COLD REMEDIES
v
REMEDIES
PREDOMINANTLY AGGRAVATED BY COLD
ARS, BAR-C, CAL-C, CALC-PH,
CAPS, CAUST, CHINA, DULC, FERR, GRAPH, HEP, HYPER, KALI-ARS,
KALI-CARB, MAGN-CARB, MAGN-PHOS, MOSCH, NITRIC-AC, NUX VOM,
PHOS, PSOR, PYROGEN, RAN-B, RHUS, RUMEX, SABAD, SEPIA, SIL,
SPIG, STRONT. (3+)
v
REMEDIES
PREDOMINANTLY AGGRAVATED BY HEAT
APIS, ARG-NIT,
FLOUR-AC, IOD, KALI-IOD, KALI-SUL, NAT-MUR, NAT-SUL, PLAT,
PULS, SABINA, SECALE. (3+)
v
REMEDIES SENSITIVE
TO BOTH EXTREMES OF TEMPERATURE
v
MERC
(MERC
in chronic troubles aggravation by cold; in acute, aggravation
by heat),
v
Ip.
v
Ant-cr:
aggravation by both heat & cold; aggravation by overheating &
radiated heat, though many symptoms are ameliorated by heat.
HOT & COLD
REMEDIES IN “SYNTHESIS REPERTORY”.
|
Generals,
HEAT, lack
of vital
heat |
Generals,
HEAT, sensation
of |
|
Alumn
Aran
Bar-c
Calc
Calc-ar
Calc-p
Camph
Carb-an
Caust
Cist
Crot-c
Dulc
Ferr
Graph
Helo
Hep
Kali-ar
Kali-bi
Kali-c
Kali-p
Led
Mag-p
Nit-ac
Nux-v
Ph-ac
Phos
Psor
Pyrog
Rhus-t
Sil
Sulph |
Alumn
Apis
Calad
Calc
Calc-s
Camph
Cann-s
Coc-c
Coff
Con
Fl-ac
Iod
Kali-s
Lil-t
Lyc
Nat-s
Puls
Sec
Nit-ac
Nux-v
Sil
Stann
Sul-i
Sulph |
They described 6
cases to show the method of working.
Case: Example
v
Miss R. G. (20).
(Outpatient, Hospital.) Feb. 15th, 1912.
v
Pain, back, when
she catches cold.
v
Head: burning
pain on vertex. > On closing eyes.
She feels sick
with headache daily < at menstrual period.
v
Cough on and off
for 4 years; really never free from cough. No pain. No sputum.
She gets worse from heat.
v
Faintish in warm
room.
v
Depressed from
consolation. Irritable with noises.
v
Fidgety.
Method of working
v
< Heat (used as
eliminating symptom to cut out cold remedies from list.
v
< Consolation (Kent,
p. 16): Nat-m, Lil-t, Plat, Thuj.
v
Noises; irritable
(p. 59): Nat-m, Iod.
v
Faint in warm room (p. 1361):
Puls, Lach,
Lil-t, Lyc.
v
Faint in crowd
(p.1359): Nat-m, Sul.
v
Headache >closing
eyes (p.137): Bry, Sul, Iod, Nat-m, Plat
v
Burning pain on
vertex (p. 177): Bry, Lach, Nat-m, Sul,
Nat-s.
v
Burning pain on vertex. < At
menstrual period (p. 177):
Lach, Nat-m, Sul.
Medicines:
