This review was reprinted from Volume XIX, Issue I, Winter/Spring 2006 edition of Simillimum with
permission from the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians.
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The Companion Guide to Homeopathy
By: Colin Griffith MCH, RS.Hom, FS. Hom

Watkins Publishing, London
Hardback, 820 pages

Reviewed by: Neil Tessler, ND, DHANP

Despite the title, this is not a practitioner's guide as such. In fact, the book is written for a general audience. Essentially, Griffith offers a very wide-ranging collection of thoughts, insights, opinions, information and experiences on generally homeopathic topics. Of course there is much here that could be of interest to practitioners, who may profit from the many case reports sprinkled throughout or be stimulated by Griffith's insights and research on various topics.

These musing by one seasoned British homeopath, reminds of us of the famous writings of another: Dorothy Shepherd, author of Magic of the Minimum Dose, who also offered a depth of information in a topical style to a general audience. However, Shepherd's works were more focused and concise, at a quarter the size. Griffith has a lot to say and wants to get it all off his chest at once. This is somewhat like having the Lord of the Rings in one volume, when it was easier to manage as three separate books.

Appropriately, the book is broken into three distinct parts starting with The Fellowship of the...woops, ah, The Cinderella of Medicine - an original, if not slightly embarrassing metaphor for homeopathy. This is a more or less a roving introduction to the philosophy of homeopathy, including discussions of vital force and the hierarchy within the organism and disease. All of the topics are dissected at considerable length. Probably the most obvious omission is any detailed discussion of dose. It is a somewhat surprising absence when the overall length and breadth of the book is considered.

The second section covers a wide range of topics under the general rubric of 'maintaining causes', a reference to various management issues in the process of the homeopathic case. Topics include medications, hormones, dental issues, nutrition, vaccination, allergies, families, and 'recreational' drugs, with a particularly scathing look at marijuana use, which Griffith characterizes as one of the worst things to come out of the sixties. The birth control pill is given twenty-five pages. There are also considerations of the training and judgment of the homeopath as a maintaining cause. Vaccinations are given a forty page treatment, including the potential side effects of each vaccine and various cases illustrative of problems associated with vaccination.

The last and longest section of the book, weighing in at four hundred pages, is on miasms. How many miasms? Griffith counts six miasms, adding Cancer and Leprosy to the usual three plus Tubercular. He covers the issues from the ground up and from many different angles. He offers considerable detail regarding the diseases associated with each miasm, which is, of course, very interesting in its own right. Along with this he emphasizes the importance of the mentality associated with each miasm. As with the entire book, there is much to learn from and much to chew on. He often takes you down an unexpected track, or looks at issues in a somewhat novel, at times idiosyncratic manner. However, this is often benefits the reader.

All in all, Griffith has offered a tremendous amount of interesting reading. Again, our major complaint is that at twice the weight of Brewster-O'Reilly's hardcover edition of the Organon, one has to feel up to the physical labor involved. Its not the best book to take to the beach, though we did so many times last summer.

We would have liked to offer some worthy excerpts, but for some reason the book scans poorly, so our advice it to thumb through at your next opportunity and see if it speaks to you. The price per ounce is fairly reasonable and there is certainly much of value, if you happen to have the stamina