Prescribing for the totality

This tendency is very marked in the study of medicine and the general public
is apt to place great confidence in a physician who is considered-or considers
himself-a specialist in some one field, because he has given a good deal of time
to the
study of that subject.

The special knowledge is most valuable date consultation of such a specialist

may be all to the good, of it does not lean to a one-sided view of the case in
hand, the paying attention to one set of symptoms only, instead of to the
general condition of the patient. Homoeopathy teaches the necessity of getting
the symptoms of the whole patient in order to find the curative remedy for the
existing disease.
This is no easy thing, especially wit a new patient-one not accustomed to
homoeopathic treatment. Such a person will often resent the physician's
careful questioning about his general condition, saying that the special trouble
for which he sought relief is all that matters. The physician is wise who sees,
and is able to make his patient see, the need for general investigation.
In this investigation some difference is to be made when the affection is an
acute and rapidly developed disease and when it is a chronic one, seeing that,
in acute disease, the chief symptoms strike us and become evident to the
senses more quickly, and hence much less time is requisite for tracing the
picture of the disease and much fewer questions are required to be asked, as
almost everything is self-evident, than in a chronic disease which has been
progressing for several years, in which the symptoms are much more difficult
to be ascertained.

"taking of the case" are so full of sound common sense that a physician should
read them frequently in order to test his own performance in that direction
In taking the case, the physician lists the subjective symptoms as given him by
the patient but at the same time and late by physical examination, notes the
objective symptoms-the expression and manner of the patient, his color,
general nutrition, the condition of the tissues, blood vessels, and organs. This
physical examination is essential, not only for the diagnosis of the patient's
condition, but also for the choice of the remedy. The drug chosen should be on
that has produced the same general condition in the provers.
As an illustration of the need for a correct diagnosis in order to make a really
accurate prescription, consider the symptom of oppressed breathing. If the
cause is a weak or otherwise abnormal heart, the remedy will be one that
affected the heart of the prover.
Or, if the lungs themselves are a t fault, another remedy would probably he
indicated. In case the cause was a general weakness, due, perhaps, to anaemia,
still other symptoms would especially help in making the choice.

Mental symptoms which are most important in getting the totality may be
both subjective and objective. Often a patient is unconscious of some
peculiarity, as irritability, hesitancy, tendency to repeat, etc., and very few
would confess to pride, selfishness or self-assertiveness. People are apt to take
themselves for granted and not to realize any departure from the normal.