Understanding Hahnemann's Liquid Dose Method

David Little talks about standardising the procedure for taking liquid dilutions.

Even Hahnemann intially wanted his disciples to stick to 30c so as the results can be repeated uniformly. It is now history that Hahn. himself tried higher potencies and later has gone into LMs.

What is interesting to know is that many doctors in India give LMs daily by asking the patient to dissolve one No.10 pellet in an ounce of water, and take the whole water as a sip.

They normally get results with that. I think the subject of posology has to evolve much further than it is now, and is likely to be different for different races/ regions. I generally find that the patients of Indian sub continent are able to handle all types of drug administration ..ranging from TDS for a month, as an example..to a fresh daily dose of LMs.

The method of administration and repetetion aspects are dependent on the perceived sensitivity of the patient..as perceived by the doctor.

I think it is impossible to standardise this aspect of homeopathy. Homeopathy is said to be an art as well as science, precisely because of the innumerable variations possible while dealing with a case, even with in the gambit of Hannemanian homeopathy.

Murthy

The method of 4th,5th and 6th Organon represent the progression of Samuel Hahnemann’s clinical methods from 1829 to Circa 1843. The 4th Organon 1829 presented the single dose method and recommends that a homeopathic remedy should not be repeated until there is a complete stand still of any amelioration in every direction.

This is called the wait and watch method” which states that a remedy should not be repeated until the duration of the previous dose has ceased. This method is usually performed by administering the medicine as dry pellets although Hahnemann was already experimenting with Olfaction and medicinal solutions.

In Aphorism 245 of the 5th Organon(1833) the Hofrath presented what he considered to be the middle path in regard to the single dose and the repetition of the remedy to speed the cure. The founder recommends that in cases where there is a perceptibility, progressive and strikingly increasing amelioration the remedy should be allowed to act alone as long as this state lasts. In Aphorism 246 the founder now suggests that in cases where there is only a slowly progressive amelioration that may take 40-50 to 100 days for the remedy to accomplish all it can do, the remedy should be repeated at suitable intervals to speed the cure before the amelioration comes to a complete stand still.
In the foot note of Aphorism 246 Hanemann says that inorder to use this true middle path the homeopath must be guided by the nature of the remedy, the physical constitution of the patient and the magnitude of the disease. This means that if one understands the nature of the remedy, the patient and the disease state it is possible to repeat the remedy to sped the cure. For example Hahnemann wrote that in chronic diseases Sulphur 30c can rarely be repeated with advantage even in robust patients with fully developed psora. Sooner than every 7days. In patients that are weaker and more sensitive it is more normal to give the remedy every 9, 12 or 14 days. This example gives one an idea of the baseline suggestion for repeating the 30c, in chronic diseases. When using 200c 0r 1M the time period between repetitions of the remedy must be lengthened accordingly.
With the 5th Organon’s middle path method it is no longer necessary to wait until the complete duration of the remedy ceases as witnessed by a complete standstill of any improvement. For this reason, the homeopath is able to speed the cure of slow moving chronic disease to one half or one quarter of the time it took with the 4th Organon’s wait and watch method. This method is still valid for the application of the c potency in dry pellets, by Olfaction and liquid solution. The wait and watch method basis for all the posology methods developed in the 1830’s and 1840’s. If homeopath does not know when to wait and watch they become prone to over medicating their patients, causing aggravations and slowing down the cure.
At the time of 4th and 5th editions Hahnemann stated his preference for the use of remedies in liquid solution but had yet to workout the most effective delivery system. This lacuna in the system was filled in 1837 when he introduced the use of the medicinal solution prepared in a bottle and preserved by brandy .This preparation was most suitable for his new method which included divided dose measured in tea spoons. The paris case books of this period shows that the founder was already using a 7 to 8 table spoon medicinal solution with the addition of a dilution glass. This method was latter presented to the public in the 6th Organon. Which was completed in 1842. By this time the founder had developed a new dynamization system called the 50 Millicimal potency.

The lost teachings of Samuel Hahnemann.

There has been quite a bit of misunderstanding about how Hahnemann actually administered the LM potency in the clinic. Some people seem to think that he gave most of his patients the daily dose for months and end in some mechanical fashion. This misapprehension arose because it is very difficult to understand how to give the LM potency just from reading the Organon with out the guidance of experienced teachers who know the method.