This book review is reprinted with the permission of the National Center for Homeopathy
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The Collected Works Of Arthur Hill Grimmer, MD
Edited by Ahmed N. Currim, PhD, MD
Hahnemann International Institute for Homeopathic Documentation,
148 E. Avenue, Suite 1-L Norwalk, CT 06851
(203) 853-1339, 1996, 890 pages, paperback, $100.
Reviewed by Julian Winston

In a memorial to Dr. Grimmer, Elizabeth Wright Hubbard said: "He was one of the inner circle around Kent and was his secretary for some years. His knowledge of homeopathy was encyclopedic, and his interest extended into areas still under experimentation such as his version of the Abrams box. He was linked with names like Boyd and Stearns, Bryant, Morgan, etc. He was one of the most high minded, tender-hearted, and sweet souled men you could imagine, and probably among the very few most loved homeopaths, both by patients and confreres ... Unfortunately he never published a book. Some people write it and others live it."

Certainly, Grimmer was a prolific writer. He published almost 200 articles and essays including 29 pieces on materia medica, 73 on therapeutics, and 19 on cancer - including a listing of 81 remedies he had found useful and their indications.

Now, 30 years after Dr. Grimmer's death, the book is available - thanks to the dedication of Dr. Ahmed Currim who has spent the last 22 years assembling the material. We can now read what Grimmer lived.

For those who need an introduction ... A. H. Grimmer grew up in California in the 1890's. His father had a small. homeopathic medicine case with 60 remedies and Johnson's Family Guide. By the time young Arthur was seven he knew all the indications for all the remedies. By the time he was eight, he was treating people successfully In 1902 he enrolled at the Hering College in Chicago and soon became the protege of Dr. Kent. Within a few years of graduation he was sharing an office with Dr. Kent, and teaching classes in Kent's stead when Kent was unavailable. When Kent died, Grimmer took over the practice. He remained in Chicago until his retirement in 1959. He retired to Daytona Beach, FL, where he died on March 5, 1967. He was a past president of both the International Hahnemannian Association and the American Institute of Homeopathy.

This massive work brings together all of Grimmer's writings into one place. Dr. Currim's treatise is divided into nine Continued on page 23 sections (approximate number of pages are in parentheses): Materia medica (150), Prophylaxis (40), Philosophy (180), Clinical Cases (60), Special Diseases (60), Essays (183), Electronic Reactions of Abrams (50), Cancer (150), and Repertory Rubrics for Kent's Repertory from Grimmer (20).

Each section is chock full of information. Grimmer was an astute observer of remedies and wrote well about them. The best way of giving a potential reader a feel of what and how Grimmer writes might be to just give a sample of the work. Here is a piece from the chapter titled "Clinical Novelties." The remedy Oxydendron arboreum was the remedy given in this case. We also find that Grimmer was using a "radionic" machine to determine the remedy - a most "unclassical" method!

"My experience with this remedy was in the case of a young married man, 23 years of age who came to my office November 19, 1942 suffering with acute diffuse nephritis which followed the extraction of a large number of infected teeth; extremities were badly swollen with considerable ascites [fluid in the peritoneal cavity]. The only thing complained of was many dizzy headaches; blood pressure 160/90; heart sounds weak and fast but regular; urine albuminous and loaded with granular and hyaline casts. The general health had always been good. The patient had been treated several months before I saw him by regular physicians of the old school. There were no therapeutic symptoms; only common and diagnostic symptoms were present for the selection of the remedy. Aur-iod 10M, Merc-sulph 10M, and Kali-ars 10M were given within an interval of about ten days apart. After each remedy the patient grew worse, becoming more bloated with fluid and gradually finding it harder to get his breath. After a month he was a pitiable sight, distended to abnormal proportions and unable to lie down, and found it almost impossible to move.

"Apparently this was an incurable case, but in desperation the patient consented to a test of his blood for remedy selection. Oxydendron was the only remedy in several hundred of the polarity group to which his blood belonged to come through. It was given in the two hundredth potency with most amazing and rapid improvement in the patient's symptoms and well being. The potency was repeated in 3 weeks and later several doses of the 10M were given at month intervals, followed by the 50M and CM potencies to complete the cure in about 6 months when the patient returned to his work as a truck driver, and has remained on the job until the present time. Some three years have elapsed with the patient remaining strong and well but still considerably under weight (135 lbs.) for his height (6 feet). From this brief review of the little known drug we could expect much greater things from its use by a complete homeopathic proving."

In another paper, we find Grimmer speaking out about the contamination of our foodstuffs - he was one of the first to bring our attention to these particular problems:

"In recent years chronic disease has been deeply complicated and confused by the universal abuse of the numerous and ever-increasing coal tar and antibiotic drugs that deluge the human race today ... All these afflictions have increased in a most alarming way during the past ten years. To the disastrous effects of universal drugging is added the deleterious action of processed and adulterated foods; vegetables and fruits contaminated with poison sprays, drinking water everywhere polluted with harmful chemicals, cooking utensils made of aluminum which slowly but surely build up a pathological residue in the organism that results in many forms of degenerative disease. All these destructive elements not only depress life forces but inhibit the action of homeopathic remedies. Hence the increased obstacles in the way of successful homeopathic prescribing."

There are about 50 articles dealing with homeopathic philosophy. It is interesting to contrast the writings of Grimmer with those of his contemporaries - Alfred Pulford and Royal E. S. Hayes. Grimmer seemed to lack the deep sense of irony and trenchant observation that his two colleagues had. His writing is very even and very literal. He speaks directly and gives lots of information. His works on Materia Medica and therapeutics are brilliant.

But as an observer of the homeopathic climate, there is something missing from his writings. At a time when the homeopathic community was writing about the lack of practitioners and the reasons for the down-turn in homeopathic practice, the essays by Grimmer all seem to be incredibly naive.

I wonder about how much of our current mythology about the reasons for the decline of homeopathy have been derived from the pen of Grimmer. In several essays, he lays the blame for the decline on the Flexner Report and on the infighting between the "highs" and the "lows" (high and low potency prescribers). He does not, at any time, acknowledge that there was no real homeopathic education taking place in the colleges: that what was taught was a mix of em- piricist, eclectic, and allopathic practice with a dab of homeopathy thrown in. He sees the lack of homeopaths as the simple result of the closing of the schools, which was the result of the Flexner Report and AMA pressure.

It could be that his personal experience - being at Hering College in Chicago - was not an accurate reflection of what was happening in the rest of the world. After all, the Hering College was the only one teaching pure homeopathy. Perhaps he never understood that his education was unique and that, all around him, the other schools were offering much less. Did he love his fellow man so much that he could not see the faults in them? Did he choose not to see? Or did he not comprehend the enormity of it?

The name "Grimmer" to some is synonymous with his amazing work with cancer cases. In this volume we now have all his writings on the subject. He relates many cases and discusses nearly eighty remedies, from Acalypha indica to Thuja, all which have cured the sufferer of cancer. Grimmer estimates that he treated several thousand cases of cancer during his career. He says that between 1925 and 1929 about 150 biopsy diagnosed cancers were cured by his treatment. During this same 5-year period another 75 cases were palliated for 7-15 years with excellent quality of life. These 75 were cases in which extensive allopathic treatment had been administered. An example of a case from the book:

"Aug. 6,1927 Splenic cancer, with weakness and the usual blood findings. Caladium given with slight benefit. Oct. 7,1928, Rad- chl. 10M. Patient became much worse, and went to another doctor, who put him in a hospital, made all the tests to confirm a certain diagnosis of cancer, and then advised a splenic operation, which was refused. On Nov. 24,1928, 1 again saw the patient and gave Cadm-met 10M, with no more medicine to the present date. A complete metamorphosis has been wrought; the blood findings are almost normal, the spleen is reduced, and the weight, color, strength and comfort of the patient are wonderfully good for a man 69 years of age."

Grimmer discusses many odd remedies as well, and these writings might be the only place you will ever see some of them delineated. Remedies like: Bomhenia, Paeonia, Kali thiocyanatum, Ocimum canum, Erythrinus, Congo red, Tilia, Toxicophis, Merc-iod cum Kali-iod, Methylene blue, Cholesterinum, Curare, Condurango, Erodium, the Euphorbias, Galium, Jequirity, Lapis albus, Oleum animale, Oxygenium, Sarsaparilla, and Sol.

The book is well bound and easy to read. An index helps find things, and almost all of the articles are referenced as to source, so we can see when they were written and who the intended audience was.

Pulling together a work like this is, unfortunately, a thankless task. There are too few within the community who can appreciate what a complete treasure this book is. We seem to be locked into a search for the best and fastest way to find the remedy - or to understand the drug pictures of our newer remedies that people are rushing to prove- while under our noses, treasures like this lie buried.

My hat is off to Dr. Currim for bringing this work together and making the writings of this grand man available for us all to see again.

HOMEOPATHY TODAY
SEPTEMBER 1997