This book review is reprinted from the British Homoeopathic Journal Volume 86, January 1997, with permission from Peter Fisher, Editor.
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Homoeopathy and the Elements.
Jan
Scholten.
Stichting Alonnissos, Servaabolwerk
13, 3512 NK Utrecht, The Netherlands 1996.
'An unknown picture needs an unknown
remedy,' suggests Jan Scholten in his new
book, in which he describes a symptom pattern
to the Periodic Table by which one may predict
sufficient characteristics of a homoeopathic
nature. It's tempting to reply in the words of the
American musical 'It ain't necessarily so!', but
who's to say it nay? Scholten, in this highly
controversial book, is not claiming that his
ideas are complete, or properly proven. He
quite properly takes pains to acknowledge
that they are only a beginning which needs to
be confirmed by conventional homoeopathic
research.
In his earlier book Homoeopathy and
Minerals Scholten developed the concept of
the salts as the sum of their anion and cation
components. Having identified key concepts,
or 'themes' of known medicines, he predicted
the likely homoeopathic drug pictures of
hitherto unknown salts, illustrating his theory
with successfully treated cases.
This clinical success led Scholten to extend
his thinking to the Periodic Table as a whole.
The elements increase steadily in atomic
weight, and their differing structures are represented in their arrangement in the Table. Were
these elemental physical structures matched by
homoeopathic characteristics such that one
might predict the likely homoeopathic use of a
medicine from its position in the Periodic
Table? Although not the first attempt to answer
this question (Roger Savage's foreword mentions the work of Sherr and Sankaran), this is
undoubtedly the most comprehensive attempt
yet. Many elements in the Periodic Table have
never been used in homoeopathy, a situation
which Scholten likens to early maps where
unexplored countries are shown as white spaces.
The book starts with a 72-page explanation
of its essential ideas. The next 740 pages
contain the new materia medica, which
encompasses all but the Lanthanides and
some 7th series elements. A 20-page
Epilogue covers a number of 'principles of
practice' issues, some of them controversial.
At every stage he uses examples to illustrate
his meaning, and this makes it easy to follow.
The last 46 pages provide comprehensive and
very useful graphs and tables which summarize the work, a bibliography, and separate
indices of concepts and medicines. This is
well done, although the explanation of the
symbols used would have been better placed
prominently at the beginning. (They differ
from those of other authors. We are shortly to
have a comprehensive Dictionary of
Homoeopathy, so is it too much to hope for a
generally accepted comprehensive set of
symbols to avoid confusion?)
In a chapter on the source of drug pictures
Scholten discusses both the value and the limitations of our two main sources of information
about drugs: provings and clinical experience.
He adds his own contribution: 'Generalization',
or extrapolation by inference from what is
known of neighbouring elements. Scholten
acknowledges that these are subject to error,
both in the current descriptions, and in the
way that they may be overshadowed by other
features in a specific case. No correlation is
found between frequency of prescription and
its environmental occurrence.
The bulk of the book concerns materia
medica based on the theory concerning the
Periodic Table. This is usually set out in 7 lines
('Series') and 18 columns ('Stages') by which
the physical structures of the atoms are related
to each other. An alternative is a 7-ring spiral,
with hydrogen at the centre. Each of these is
described in a short paragraph. Each series has
a theme, to do with being, one of man's '7
ages', a geographical area, sense datum and tissue. The 'Stages' are those of any project: the
idea, its initiation, planning, development, execution, use at its prime, its decline and decay.
Each medicine has these two items by which it
can be described. Natrum, for example, is in the
first stage, some of whose characteristics are
simplicity, impulse, spontaneity, naivety,
immaturity, being alone, and destruction.
Relating the concepts of each of these lists
gives a third list, corresponding to those characteristics expected in a potency of the element
itself. These include simple love, relationships
made impulsively which get stuck at the beginning, being alone in the home and so on. Since
Natrum is known as a salt, this list must later be
combined with another derived from the cation.
Quoting one of Scholten's cases may help,
although there is so much in the book that
serious study is needed to make it properly
comprehensible. A patient complained of
various minor complaints including spots on
his chin, teeth grinding, painful penile rash,
receding hair, etc. He was a very committed
manager who had planned each stage of his
career carefully. This indicates a medicine
from the 'Gold' series. Which 'stage'? At age
35 he had not reached the top, so he was
between stages 1 and 10. He had passed the
planning and initial stages of his career path,
which was against stages 1-5. He had
responded briefly to Osmium, stage 8, which
indicates it was not the best prescription.
Detailed questioning established that he was
practising as a manager, that he felt he was still
learning, and could profit from constructive
criticism and positive feedback; he was keen
to co-operate and learn from it, and could
still be subject to self-doubts. These might
relate to confused situations, to which he was
averse; he preferred a clear overview of his
problem. These characteristics are reflected
in the description of stage 7 of the 18, which
is the element rhenium. Following a potency
of Rhenium he felt calmer and better generally, and his physical complaints went away
and stayed away. Since some of these features had not been noted previously in the
materia medica of this medicine, they were
added to it tentatively after the success of this
prescription.
The Materia Medica section has the following
headings:
Introduction. The homoeopathic history of the
drug is traced, with references where appropriate.
Signature. Origin of name, properties- and uses of
the element or compound.
Concepts. Those of the relevant Series and Stages,
mostly one-word characteristics.
Group analysis. The combination of the 2 above
lists to form 'catch-phrases', which we are told is
often enough to form the basis of a prescription.
Picture. Story-form unfolding of a clinical picture,
based on all available information.
In this:
Expressions: key mental/emotional symptoms.
General: key general symptoms.
Complaints: a summary of local symptoms from all
sources, brief where standard knowledge is great.
We are advised to use this section cautiously,
especially in lesser-known medicines.
DD: a list of similar medicines, groups of medicines
and Stages from which it must be distinguished.
Sometimes helpful distinguishing features are
included.
Case: Where available, cases are included, except
for those in the earlier book.
(Of these he comments that, at the time of
writing, all but 2 cases were doing well.)
Also in his Epilogue the author presents a
series of provocative propositions, only some
of which relate to the main thesis of the
work. He might have been better advised not
to include these, as he is being controversial
enough already; however, compromise is
clearly not his style. He argues against the
existence of a single right remedy, finds
monthly repetition works for him in practice
better than waiting till relapse occurs,
describes side-effects as symptoms of an
incorrect remedy, obstacles to cure merely as
a feature of a case requiring therapy of itself,
and so on. Each would make a good debate.
This book must represent the biggest
potential addition to the concepts of
homoeopathy since Hahnemann's original
discoveries. This may sound sweeping, but if
not, what is? I say 'potential' advisedly, as it
all remains to be proven, in practice, by traditional homoeopathic and modern research
methods. Data collection is now possible,
which should facilitate this process, and I
understand that the book itself is part of some
programs. I hope all standard programs will
soon have it.
It is not easy for someone used to traditional
history-taking to adapt to these new ideas.
Scholten very wisely suggests several readings of the chapters on Series and Stages, for
until these are committed to memory and
become familiar, it will remain difficult to
use. While I admire the clarity of thought
Scholten brings to the many succinctly stated
examples he gives, I personally find it far
less easy to see which of several possibilities
is paramount in a given case.
It has been objected that a work such as
this is unscientific, and therefore a disservice
to homoeopathy at a point in its history
when, more than ever before, its future
depends on more exacting evidence than that
of a few cases. But where does science
begin? In his Foreword Ferdnand Debats
refers to this problem. Scientists have historically started from an idea in question form.
This is the heuristic, or searching, stage of
research. Without it, no 'quantum leaps' in
knowledge are likely to occur. If you accept
the place of heuristics in the list of scientific
method, and you place this work there, you
will have the right perspective from which to
consider the theory Scholten propounds.
I hope the work will be given a fair hearing,
and that many of us will eventually contribute
to an increase in our knowledge which, while
it may validate most of what is written here,
will also probably modify it.
JOHN ENGLISH
British Homeopathic Journal
Volume 86, July 1997