CASES

 Mercurius solubilis

CASE1

- Man, 62 years old

- This man came with pain, a kind of intermittent claudication (Claudication is pain caused by too little blood flow to your legs or arms. This is usually a symptom of peripheral artery disease, in which the arteries that supply blood to your limbs are narrowed, usually because of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis occurs when arteries get thick and stiff due to a buildup of fatty deposits (plaques) on your artery walls.) .

- They did all kinds of examinations and one specialist says this and the other specialist says that, so that I did not believe any of them.

- A: Tell me, what were your complaints, your problems?

- P: Well, it started as soon as I retired, the first week.

- That was 2 years ago.

- A: Otherwise you haven't been ill?

- First of all, observe.

- What do you see?

- The man is sitting there, everything is clean and neat.

- You could think about Sulphur, but the appearance is completely different.

- P: No, other diseases, but I never had this before.

- The pain was extending from the feet to the lower abdomen.

- They were so strong, that I couldn't walk anymore and couldn't ride on a bicycle anymore.

- My only hobby was riding on a bicycle.

- You can imagine what kind of shock this was to me.

- Then, I didn't sleep for 3 to 4 months because of the anxiety, I was awake every night and I filled in many, many crosswords.

- " I was awake every night."-

- He couldn't sleep because of the pain.

- We have to think of a remedy which has an aggravation at night.

- Where can we find this? Under " extremities", " pain, night" on page 1044.

- First, we take the general rubric, because when you have clear modalities it is better to look in the sub divisions.

- The three capital remedies are Chamomilla, mercurius and Plumbum.

- When they have to get out of bed because of the pain the remedies are Chamomilla, Ferrum and Mercurius.

- A: Was the pain worse at night?

- P: Yes, it was much worse at night.

- At work I dragged myself, really dragged myself to work.

- I work at a notary and I have my own desk- I had the opportunity to put my legs on a chair and to wait until the pain was over.

- Usually, it lasted 1 to 1/2 hours until the pain was over.

- I had a very active life, incredibly active, I never sat still.

- I didn't only work in the notary, but I also had my own business: insurance, savings-bank, accountancy, social law giving and soon.

- I was busy day and night and at once everything disappears, I only had to sit, just sit, I had no courage anymore, I was in a bad mood.

- The family is in a bad mood, my wife is not satisfied, the children aren't satisfied and the employer either.

- A: You were in a bad mood?

- P: Yes, everything went wrong.

- A: Also very hot-tempered?

- P: Yes, hot-tempered, everything you can imagine.

- A: What do you mean by: "What you can imagine?"

- I mean, about what did you get excited, what couldn't you tolerate?

- P: On one side it was because of the pain, the consequence was that I couldn't move anymore.

- I couldn't do anything, no activities.

- A: And what makes you angry so easily?

- "Because of the pain" you said, all right, but what couldn't you tolerate?

- P: That I'm turned down.

- A: But what behaviour of other people around you couldn't you tolerate?

- What made you angry?

- P: That nobody could help me.

- I nearly saw ever doctor in Belgium to help me.

- I did gymnastics in the hospital, I went to neurosurgeons, nerve specialists, and all possible hospitals, and then the professor just said to me, "You can do much more than you know."

- This was the result of the examinations, but it is not right.

- I went into the scanner twice and the neurosurgeon says that there was nothing wrong, "Go home with your pain."

- A: It must have cost quits a lot of money?

- P: Yes, absolutely.

- It lasted for more than two years and I had to take a few boxes of medicines.

- From the veins they went to the muscles and from the muscles to the nerves, and when they couldn't find anything they went to something else.

- They were always excluding they went to something else.

- They were always excluding something, but they couldn't find a solution.

- A: So we can say that at that time you had quite a lot of pain on the psychological level, you were very irritated.

- P: Yes.

- And I didn't feel Like doing anything.

- A: Listless?

- P: Yes, completely.

- No will power anymore, I did feel like getting off of the couch, I was so depressed, really.

- And besides, I was real workaholic.

- In the morning I got up very early and I came home late in the evening.

- Then it is like a movie which is playing and you see that everything disappears, " I can't any more!" I can't go on holiday anymore I can't have any hobbies anymore, can't ride on a bicycle, can't walk, nothing at all.

- I must say I couldn't even have coition anymore.

- Everything, everything was paralysed.

- At night I couldn't Sleep any more and then I think, "Did I have to drudge my whole life to see everything disappearing?

- And be impossible to enjoy it?"

- At that moment I said to myself, " I was always at the service of other people, day and night, and now, when it is my turn, I can't anymore."

- A: So you couldn't sleep anymore.

- When you were lying in bed what were you thinking of?

- P: Well, I always thought of work, of all difficulties.

- You don't think of beautiful things, because they don't exist anymore.

- I'm always thinking, "Where do I find a solution?

- Where else can I go?"

- Nobody gets a disease without any reason.

- There must be a reason for it, unless certain diseases brethren from the younger years until old age; then it is a constitutional problem.

- For example, as a child someone had inflammations of the tonsils very often and the tonsils were removed.

- Later he got problems with his memory, then loss of hair and afterwards hypertension and he became senile very early.

- Which is the remedy?

- Baryta carbonica.

- You see how Baryta carbonica runs through the whole life from the beginning on.

- When someone has been healthy for his whole life an when certain symptoms appear from a certain point on there must be reason, and therefore we have to find out to what he is sensitive, when the problem started.

- Originally, the reason must be found on the energetic level.

- When the reason lasts there will be changes on the chemical level, then on the microscopic and then on the macroscopic level and at the end they call it organic disease.

- For example, a vascular constriction is preceeded by a long development and a long term psychological problem must be the basis of a stomach ulcer.

- First, there is stomach pain, without organic change, later on microscopic, then macroscopic changes and then there is the stomach ulcer.

- But this stomach ulcer has it s origin in a psychological, energetic problem.

- Therefore we will try to find out where his psychological- energetic problem lies, to what is sensitive, because the sensitiveness points to the necessary remedy.

- When they are sensitive to rain, when they get a headache after they ran in the rain then they need a remedy which is sensitive to rain.

- For every patient we have to find the point to which he is sensitive, hypersensitive, something which we cant explain further.

- A: Previously, how did it go at your work?

- A: We were sitting together with a few colleagues and the notary.

- The one we had at that time didn't bother much, and we could do what we wanted to do.

- We organized our work ourselves.

- If we do this for 40 years there are always a few solutions which we just can knock off, no matter which case.

- The man trusted us and it was all right.

- I try to understand, why he has these complaints.

- In this remedy the cause is always an annoyance, an internal annoyance which cant be explained.

- Only with little children it is something different.

- A: What do you think about injustice?

- P: There are two, three things in life which I cant tolerate.

- One of them is when someone is treated illegally, I cant tolerate.

- Then I become angry.

- I saw too many things in life, in family questions, fights about heritage and so on.

- A: You are an honest person yourself?

- P: I hope so.

- A: Your blood boils when you see that something is not serious.

- What do you think about the situation in South Africa?

- P: Apartheid?

- It should not exist.

- A: You don't worry much about it?

- Yes, I follow the situation.

- A: There are certain people, who concerning the human rights can't tolerate injustice at all.

- What do you thing about that?

- P: Yes, it should not exist, but it is so far away from home, we can do so little about it, we can help so little.

- It doesn't help when we annoy ourselves, it doesn't, we cant do anything about it.

- There is no solution.

- Causticum can't, and Magnesium muriaticum can't, at al.

- Magnesium muriaticum is too sensitive, they can'tt tolerate rudeness, exactly the same as Causticum, they are also too sensitive to kill.

- We know the remedies which are sensitive to injustice, but there are many.

- Which is the most important?

- Staphisagria, Causticum, in fact both are one remedy.

- Colocynthis, Staphisagria, Causticum that is one remedy.

- If a woman comes in school and sees that her daughter is treated unfairly, annoys herself about it and gets cramping abdominal pain, that is Colocynthis.

- Or when someone as a child was very sensitive, was not accepted by the mother and was ill treated, with bedwetting, black teeth and so on, that is Staphisagria.

- But later, when they are taller and stronger, they go out and start fighting.

- They develop to Causticum.

- This patient is also very sensitive, but his way of acting is different.

- Staphisagria is hypersensitive, but they cannot react.

- Often, they throw things, but that is only at one moment.

- When they become stronger, they start to react, especially concerning injustice.

- But what kind of sensitivity towards injustice is this?

- When they see on television how these people in South Africa, South America and all these countries are ill treated they become angry immediately.

- When they see injustice at their job, or when, for example, someone in their class is ill treated by the teacher they will fight.

- They go to the teacher and say that he didn't behave correctly, even when the teacher throws him out.

- He risks his own head for someone else who has been ill treated.

- Here in this case it is another sensitivity towards injustice.

- He says that South Africa and America are so far away, this means that his interest is limited to his own society and not to other international countries.

- It seems as if the sensitivity to injustice is connected with a kind of egoimsm.

- Do you understand the difference?

- Causticum has an ideal, injustice may not be there, he must put away all injustice, because he has suffered by someone else and he will fight against it.

- This remedy is sensitive to injustice because of his own advantage, but there is something more, his own society, his own land.

- And there develops what I call national socialism: the god, the right for our country.

- Than, there is also magnesium muriaticum.

- Magnesium muriaticum is also sensitive to injustice, but in a special way.

- They can't see violence, not even on television.

- This remedy here can see violence and can become violent himself.

- Causticum can become a terrorist, they can burn themselves but shoot other people?

- No, they cant.

- This remedy can do it, they will react opt injustice, they can also kill.

- Causticum cant and Magnesium muriaticum cant at all.

- Magnesium muriaticum is too sensitive, they cant tolerate rudeness, exactly the same as Causticum, they are also too sensitive to kill

- A: You say that you are a person who likes to walk in the mountains.

- Do you think you are a quiet person?

- P: Well yes, previously I wasn't.

- A: Previously, you were always in a hurry?

- P: Yes, always.

- Always stress, from the morning until the evening.

- You may be astonished, but once I sold life insurance to a doctor where I couldn't go before 1 o'clock at night.

- And then it is half past four until I am ready with the deal and can go home.

- He worked day and night and was constantly in a hurry.

- If you look on page 52 under " hurry" you see some capital remedies like Lilium tigrinum, Medorrhinum, Mercurius, Natrum muriaticum, Sulphur, Sulphuricum acidum and Tarentula.

- It would lead s too far astray to differentiate all these hurried remedies.

- A: Concerning your mental state, do you understand things quickly or do you think that your mind is slow?

- P: I will think.

- I don't answer immediately.

- No, I don't.

- A: That is a peculiarity of yours?

- P: Yes, first I have to think before I answer.

- Something happens, he takes the information in, puts fire on it, let it boil and then I comes out.

- He doesn't react immediately, he can't

- The anger boils a long time and at a moment where he cant control it anymore there is an impulse and it comes out.

- This is not an immediate reactions we see in Nux vomica.

- But this remedy is and important differential diagnosis to Nux vomica.

- We made a lot of wrong prescriptions, because both are easily offended, but there is a difference between both.

- When you come too late at your work and your boss is a Nux vomica he will shout at you, but two hours later he has forgotten everything.

- This is not the case with this man.

- When he sees that you are two minutes late he says, "I will see if he comes too late tomorrow, then.." and so on.

- And one day, if he is late again he explodes.

- But this only happens after a long period of internal boiling.

- And he is lying at night and is thinking, delusions at night and then the pain at night.

- A: First, you have to think, you can't react immediately.

- P: I could.

- In certain cases I could.

- When someone hurts me I will react immediately, but when it concerns business matters, where there is some responsibility, like at the notary, for example, then I want to be sure first.

- Also when I say, "listen, I can't tell you for sure, but this afternoon I can tell you every detail."

- When I give advice to someone, I want to be sure.

- A: Don't you think that at the time that you had a lot of pain...

- Besides, the hurriedness, which you had before, was that because of the job or because you are a person who is restless and nervous spontaneously?

- P: I wanted to reach something and I made it.

- Well yes,..

- At the cost of my family life.

- " At the cost of my family life", that can never be Kali bichromicum.

- This remedy is also a syphilitics remedy, like Kali bichromicum, but the character is completely different.

- A: Yes, you can't have everything, but the question was whether there is a certain impulse or restlessness in you.

- P: Yes, yes.

- A: So we can say, externally quiet, but internally someone who has an impulse, who is restless.

- And strange enough, notwithstanding the hurriedness, someone who needs his time to work something out and to translate.

- P: That's right.

- Also a kind of honesty, about which we talked a minute ago.

- I like to give other people perfect advice.

- A: It has to be correct.

- A: Another aspect is that you were worse especially at night.

- P: And with exertions.

- A: All right.

- During the pain did you have moments where you became excited?

- That you would do I don't know what towards someone who said something to you or who put obstacles in your way?

- P: Yes, but that doesn't make any difference.

- Why should I do something if it doesn't change anything?

- A: Were you hot- tempered sometimes?

- P: I could be internally.

- A: Which internal impulse do you often feel?

- Internally, real violence, not because of the pain.

- There are other remedies which are violent because of the pain.

- Which remedies?

- Very angry, violent even to rage, these are Aurum, Hepar, Chamomilla.

- If people come with very strong sciatic pain and they are moaning and crying that you have to cure them, that they can’t stand it longer, then the differential diagnosis between Hepar and Aurum is not easy.

- Pain is something subjective, you can’t measure it.

- You can recognize the remedy by the way they react to pain Aurum can become so violent that they become anxious, or the pain leads him nearly to suicide.

- I had such a patient and first I gave him Nux vomica - nothing; then Aurum and he was cured from sciatica immediately.

- I thought, it must be Nux vomica, because he was so violent, but it was not right; Aurum and Hepar sulphuris.

- You can differentiate both remedies by which modality/ the pain of Hepar ameliorates much better by warmth and the slightest draft of air will aggravate the sciatica or the pain in the throat or I don't know what.

- But these neuralgic pains, this kind of pain makes Aurum and Hepar violent.

- With Chamomilla you see this violence on account of pain in which people?

- In children and in women, not so easy in men, but it might occur.

- It is not the case with this patient.

- He withholds it, he is not violent during this pain at night.

- P: it is always the same.

- It concerns reactions to things which are not the way they have to be.

- A: But how do you feel then?

- Which impulse appears in you?

- You are a person who is always decent, someone who is closed, I mean you withhold your impulse, your urge.

- You don't let go, but which impulse really appeared when you were really angry?

- P: I was a little bit hot-tempered.

- A: A little bit hot-tempered?

- You never had the feeling: "I could hit you?"

- I mean, internally?

- P: No, I can't say.

- A: You never though you could kill somebody?

- P: No, no.

- He is a well educated man, but in less high educated people you will see what they answer; " I could have killed this man, if I had a knife." Hepar also could have staged this man.

- It is the impulse to kill someone who contradicts him.

- A: We can say that you are a person who is very sensitive, who is easily angry, but who doesn't show it.

- And this withdrawal causes tensions.

- P: I think so, yes.

- A: At the moment when you had pain you saw your dreams disappearing.

- You were anxious that you couldn't Do the things you did before.

- Did you get some other anxieties?

- P: No.

- I was only anxious about my health.

- A: Didn't you ever think, "Damned, I will become insane?"

- P: No, I never did.

- A: So you saw all these doctors, neurosurgeon and so on.

- This cost the state surely a few million francs, the scanner and all these kinds of examinations.

- Have you ever been operated on?

- P: Yes.

- A: Before you retired?

- P: Yes.

- The last time was in 1981.

- A: Because of the same complaints?

- P: No, because of pain in the left knee which occurred during a walk in the mountains.

- Everyone thought, it would be a muscle sprain, but it wasn't.

- I suffered from it for half a year.

- A: Was it because of the obstruction of the blood vessel?

- P: Yes.

- A: It is gone now?

- P: Yes.

- The remedy is one of the important remedies in obstruction of the blood vessels.

- Why?

- By character these are people who withhold their feelings.

- They are rigid, stiff and after a long time their blood vessels also become rigid and they get high blood pressure.

- Which is the most important remedy in hypertension?

- What can't you eat according to the allopathic medicine? Salt.

- Natrum muriaticum.

- You may note at it, because it gives a hypertension.

- So, the main important remedy in hypertension is Natrum muriaticum, because they with hold everything.

- The same in kali carbonicum.

- Kali carbonicum only thinks about his duty and that's the reason why he gets problems with the kidney, rigidity and hypertension.

- All remedies which withhold their feelings are arteriosclerotic remedies.

- Did I tell you the history of the homoeopath from GDR?

- It concerns a man of 87 years, we were together in Berlin.

- He was there and he was smoking -this means that he is a very flexible man - and he asked me if I knew the difference between a washing machine and the GDR.

- I said, "No, how should I know?"

- " You can descale a washing machine..."

- This remedy causes a sclerosis of the blood vessel and then an obstruction follows.

- And you can notice the sclerosis of the people in the GDR as well as in federal Republic of Germany, but even more in the GDR.

- It has to be this way and not different.

- A: Often you had other symptoms.

- Which one?

- If we are dealing with someone who has problems on many different levels, for example, with the kidneys, the bladder, the knee, the veins, what does this mean?

- For which remedy do we have to look?

- For a small remedy or a deep acting polychrest?

- Normally, small remedies act on a small place.

- Here, it is the knee, the kidneys, the veins; the bladder, this means it must be a remedy which acts on nearly the whole organism.

- P: That's quite a long time ago, I cant say exactly what it was.

- An infection, inflammation of the bladder, stone in the kidneys.

- The first remedy for stones in the kidneys is Calcarea carbonica, but also this remedy has stones, also stones in the salivary glands.

- If you have a stone in the submental salivary glands it is this remedy.

- Why do you have stones in the parotid gland?

- Because the salivation is so viscid, that's why there are stones in the parotid gland.

- It is the same with calcification of the veins.

- A: Second it seems as if the pain started from the moment you started worrying about your work.

- P: Yes, in the first week.

- A: What was the main point?

- P: It was not because there were changes at work, but because there was a new employer.

- A: What happened to you internally?

- P: This boss had new rules with which I didn't agree and with which I don't agree nowadays.

- A: What kind of boss was he?

- P: It was the son of the notary.

- A: It was when you retired.

- But you went on working with the notary?

- P: I still do, in the forenoon.

- A: So, it had nothing to do with the retirement, but with the new employer.

- P: Yes, I think so.

- I was very honest, I didn't know how it would have been otherwise.

- It was a few years ago.

- The old boss went away and the new one came.

- At the beginning you can't change the way such an office is organized.

- If you have a man who worked in the office for 40 years and the new boss comes there and he doesn't know anybody, doesn't know any file, doesn't know anything about the system, doesn't know anything about the organisation of the office, then you have to butter a person up the person who is working there for 40 years.

- It is logical because when he leaves the office it will take another two years before the office is organized again.

- That is the reason.

- There is a new boss who is not correct, who doesn't know about things he should know.

- That is the reason for the internal anger and then they get physical complaints because of this anger.

- Remark: "You could also indicate this as an injured sense of honour."

- A: Yes, maybe, it might be, but it is rather so that these people want everything to be correct, the way it should be.

- Also his appearance is very correct, clean, in line.

- If you see this man you understand this and if you compare the German army in 1939, it was a very disciplined army.

- Who invented the highways?

- Germany.

- In the South the streets go over the mountains and the valleys, these are winding roads, this is not so in the North.

- In the North you see the big straight highways as in South Africa.

- If you go to South Africa- I have been there for on month-you feel as if you are in Germany.

- Everything turns around the same idea: straight.

- Why do you think that the South African government is so inflexible?

- Because they need a national remedy that is the reason.

- I don't judge, but I try to understand this homeopathically.

- Why did the National Socialism in Germany appear?

- Because of the injustice.

- You have to put yourself in that time and you see that many Germans who worked very hard were suppressed by those who were not German, but who had money.

- There is a tendency in the population to say that it is not right, that it is unjust, that they suffer, while others have the money and the power.

- There was a will to react against this, because it was an injustice against their own country.

- They wanted to reorganize and fight together for their country.

- That's how this army existed and this army was pure discipline.

- The most disciplined army which has ever existed in the world was the German army.

- Other countries have admired this discipline.

- But if someone didn't do what they had to do he would have been killed, no pardon, he would have been killed, finished.

- In Holland it is completely different.

- In a small town in Germany- in large cities maybe it is different in the meantime if you forgot your wallet they would bring it back to you.

- These are very honest people.

- On the contrary in Holland if you park your car there and you turn your back the car radio already has disappeared.

- That is the difference.

- Or when we put a few apples here and a person from Holland passes by he will take an apple and eat it.

- A German would say, " No, it doesn't belong to me, I won't take it."

- They are very polite.

- It is strange that certain people behave in this way.

- Also the behaviour of a man from Holland not to buy beer, but to order water.

- They don't pay a cent for beer, they take what they can get without paying.

- I don't know why this is so.

- We will try to find out the remedy for Holland.

- But of Germany it is this remedy.

- You can notice this all over Germany.

- The justice for their country and this National Socialism is very narrow-minded.

- A broad mind means to forget the borders, to live together in peace.

- That's what we need, but not National Socialism.

- Maybe now you can understand the sensitivity towards injustice, injustice towards the land and the reaction to it as a land, as a nation.

- It is a kind of national egoism, like Kali bichromicum egoistic concerning the family.

- They are fighting for justice, for a big and beautiful country and they don't want to see dirty things in the street.

- Everything has to be clean the uniform, the streets, everything, just everything.

- At the end when they see that they can't hold this, they commit suicide.

- Did you see how the big man of that time, Hitler, trembled with his hands in the films of 1943/1944 you can see this very well.

- First the trembling of the hands and then the suicide.

- Kind Ludwig von Bayern wanted himself to be admired as a person.

- He was the king, he was Aurum.

- Germany wanted to be admired as a country, as a nation, and these two remedies are complementary.

- If Mercurius can't reach its aim, can’t be brilliant he will come in an Aurum state and commit suicide.

- P: At the beginning the problem was only too much work, still more stress, because there was another employee who has become independent.

- Suddenly, a student came and another one and another one.

- All these years I think I instructed six or seven people, but I stuck to my job, the most important job.

- A: You didn't agree that he burdened you with that task.

- P: I couldn't do it besides my job, but on the other hand my feeling for honesty came up, I just cant abandon the office, I don't want to.

- I have to stay an instruct people, no matter what it costs.

- A: Your feeling for sensibility.

- P: Exactly.

- No matter what it coats.

- But later, when it has run for two or three years it comes to the main point.

- Then they say, "You always did it.

- It is not bad, we will continue this way."

- And the machine, it is not right.

- We put a computer there and we don't need to receive anybody, everything can be done by letter.

- You feel put back.

- A: And that started the stone rolling?

- P: Yes, I think so.

- In fact, I've been put aside, but I'm still there.

- I reconcile myself to that.

- I said, "I will work there until I'm 65, notwithstanding everything."

- Do you see the inflexibility?

- And do you understand why you find a German Repertory only in Germany?

- There are no French Repertories, no Dutch Repertories, only German.

- Because of the inflexibility, because of the desire to be someone as a country.

- That's why there are German Repertories.

- Why there are German Repertories.

- Don't judge this, I only try to understand.

- I don't care about it, but it is very peculiar, very strange.

- Everything that we notice we should try to understand.

- P: On one had I want to do it, on the other hand it is my pleasure.

- I'm honest.

- I always enjoyed my job and I still do.

- Two to three years ago I didn't, but at the moment I still do.

- A: We can also say that you are someone who is very tidy, works carefully and who is organised.

- P: Yes.

- A: According to the rules.

- Then it has to be this way, because otherwise it won't work.

- P: Yes.

- Previously, I made my work schedule on January 1 and then I knew what I had to do on December 26 and where I had to be.

- Also the program of the accountancy was fixed a year before.

- Do you know what the Germans are known for?

- For organisation.

- They are the best organisers.

- They build the best machines.

- In the whole world you don't find such good typewriters, printing machines and other machines.

- In Germany everything is very well organised.

- Do you remember the war?

- The USA and England needed four years to prepare, Germany was immediately prepared, everything was well organised.

- Remark: "But Mercurius is not in the rubric 'painful at trifles'."

- A: I didn't say that Mercurius is painful at trifles.

- It is not a trifle to be correct, it is very important.

- If you miss a detail the whole picture is lost.

- Details are little things which are not connected to other things.

- For example, Baryta carbonica only sees a small point, not the whole organisation, he doesn't see the relationship.

- Mercurius on the contrary sees how is has to be and all the details have to correspond, because otherwise the whole picture doesn't function.

- A: I think that the emotional picture has been worked out very well.

- The essence of the remedy is that they can't react immediately.

- They with hold their feelings, the anger stays inside and as a consequence of that symptoms will come up; the impulse to kill, the salivation at night.

- At the moment where they lose their control, when they let go there is salivation, everything comes out that they withhold during the day.

- They are over- controlled.

- At night there are also pains and perspiration.

- On page 418 you will find the rubric "salivation night" and "sleep, during".

- In the rubric " salivation night" you will also find Natrum muriaticum and "sleep, during", you will also find Lac caninum, Lac caninum is a very important differential diagnostic remedy in, for example, throat inflammations.

- Does everyone know the key note of Lac caninum?

- The symptoms are switching from one side to the other and back.

- Baryta carbonica also has salivation at night.

- There is also the arteriosclerosis, the early senility.

- If you have to give Baryta carbonica you will see that their tonsils have been removed as a child, that they have large glands, that they had to redo a year at school and that they behave like a child now.

- It concerns people who can't make decisions .

- this is not so in this patient.

- In the rubric " salivation right" you will also find Carbo animals, Kali carbonicum, as well as a conservative remedy like Pulsatilla, Rhus toxicodendron and important additions of Sulphuricum acidum and Syphilinum.

- Every time I give this remedy I ask about the character, I ask whether they react immediately or if they have to think about it for a while.

- Question: "..." (not understandable, it concerns a typical Mercurius profession)

- A: Yes that is very typical.

- Mercurius often has a profession in which they have to judge: That is right, that is wrong, or; He has to go to jail, or; He has to be killed.

- A judge, a president of the court or lawyers.

- A: Concerning the sleep, do you have quite a lot of salivation at night?

- P: Yes.

- A: Do you still have it?

- P: Not so much anymore.

- A: Do you have a special taste in your mouth?

- P: A very bad, purulent taste.

- Bad, really bad.

- A: Did you ever have problems with your ears?

- P: No.

- A: Also not with your nose?

- P: No.

- A: May I see your tongue?

- These are key notes.

- You have to know them: the indented tongue, the flabby tongue, the coated tongue, the trembling tongue when protruding and the tremulous (shaking or quivering slightly ) voice.

- Why do they have a tremulous voice?

- Because they withhold everything.

- Also the hands are trembling because of the inner tensions, they are also trembling when they take something to their mouth.

- The perspiration at night does not relieve.

- You will also find this in Hepar sulphuris, but Hepar is much colder, they want more warmth.

- In Mercurius you will find the inflexibility on all levels, also concerning the warmth and the cold.

- The water in the bath has to be the right temperature, not one degree less, not one degree more, because they are so sensitive, they have so little flexibility.

- There is another characteristic: the Mercurius smell or it is better to say, the stink.

- Three, four months ago I had a case, a woman about mid forties, whose daughter finished secondary school and who wanted to study.

- But instead of going to the university here, she wanted to go to the United States first and study afterwards.

- So, she went to the United States and two weeks later she called home to say that she couldn't hold out there.

- She came back and started studying at the university of Leaven.

- At that time her mother found out that her daughter slept with her boyfriend.

- A few weeks later she started to become depressed, life didn't have any meaning, she couldn't work anymore, she didn't do anything at all.

- She had to lie down constantly, she didn't want to go anywhere, couldn't sleep anymore and so on.

- I thought, this is a grief, because she had a certain picture about her daughter, the only daughter had to be serious and so on.

- Besides, she sighed very much, so I gave her Ignatia - without result.

- In the meantime she took tranquilizers which her family doctor prescribed, also without any results.

- I examined the case together with a colleague again and I gave her Natrum muriaticum- without any result.

- After Natrum muriaticum her sister called me and she said, " Alfons, I went to her this morning and there was a nasty smell in the whole house."

- I asked, "What do you mean, a nasty smell?"

- "Yes, there was a nasty smell of perspiration."

- Before, the patient told me that she woke up every morning at 3 three o'clock completely wet with the perspiration.

- I looked it up: there was no other remedy besides Natrum muriaticum.

- How should I discover Mercurius?

- But when her sister said that there was a nasty smell in the whole house, then this was the reason I gave her Mercurius.

- Four days later everything was gone, yet everything was bad for one month while I tried to find the correct remedy.

- It was a very depressed, very dangerous situation and only the perspiration smell and the perspiration at night made me think of Mercurius.

- I didn't believe in my prescription, but what could I do?

- I think that the grief of Mercurius will come up when they have an idea of how their daughter or husband ought to be and these ideas collapse.

- That is the reason for their grief.

- Another symptom in this woman was that she was stammering since her childhood on, but I didn't pay attention to it at that time.

- If they have a symptom which exists for quite a long time, don't forget to take account of it in your prescription.

- The tremulous voice, the stammering, this means an inability to express.

- They want to express, but they can't.

- Something inside holds them back.

- A: Tell me what you like to eat, your preferences.

- P: I can tell you immediately what I don't like to eat.

- I can't say immediately what I like to eat.

- I don't like oysters and I don't like gherkins, that is all.

- A: Do you have certain preferences?

- P: No, not particularly.

- I like everything.

- A: Creamy butter?

- P: Never.

- A: Well, yes.

- I like it very much, but I don't eat it.

- That is also a consequence of the previous examinations, because of the cholesterol in my blood.

- I also follow a diet, for I don't know how many months.

- It didn't help much either.

- A: But you like butter?

- P: Yes, I like creamy butter very much.

- A: When you go to eat and you eat soup, do you like to eat a piece of bread with it?

- P: Yes.

- Before I start eating soup I take a piece of bread and put butter on it.

- In Germany they eat real, good, strong things: real butter, not margarine, good bread, a big piece of meat, pig's trotters.

- That is Mercurius.

- A: That is a special, particular preference, don't you think so?

- Real butter with bread?

- P: Well.

- A: Are you thirsty?

- P: No, I seldom drink because I'm thirsty.

- A: Does your job play an important role in your life?

- P: A Yes.

- I just told you that my job is the e most important thing in my life.

- And the thing that annoys me afterwards is that my wife and my children didn't get what they should have.

- I had three children, they could never ask me a thing, because I didn't have time for them.

- I came home at six o'clock and was already gone before half past six.

- That was every Saturday and Sunday.

- On Saturday morning I was at the office.

- I will never do it again, I will never live the same life.

- Probably, I was less satisfied, but I would try to give more.

- I had very little time.

- A: Did you ever speak about your feelings?

- P: Never, no, never in my life, not even to my wife.

- A: You are a person who always lived with the head and emotionally you always withheld yourself, although emotionally you were very sensitive?

- P: Yes, I never talked about it, never.

- During the first consultation I told you that I only cried twice in my life.

- The first time was when my daughter married.

- But I can cry on my own.

- A: You can cry when you are alone?

- P: Yes.

- I can, it happens.

- In the church, on the toilet, in the bath, it happens.

- A: Do you think that in general you are a rather sad person?

- P: No.

- A: Only at that moment?

- P: Yes.

- Otherwise I 'm always laughing.

- A: All right.

- That was very important.

- P: I would always say to others, let us laugh and be happy and see everything in a positive way.

- I think I said it yesterday.

- A: It is remarkable that you can't bear strong heat?

- P: No.

- A: Also you don't tolerate the cold well.

- Can you tolerate music?

- P: Yes.

- A: Can it be played loud?

- P: Not too soft, because otherwise I don't hear it very well.

- When I turn on music, for example, when I play a record, then I want to hear what is said or sung and when it is very soft I don't hear it so well.

- It has to be loud enough so that I can hear every word.

- A: Your voice also trembles a little bit.

- Do you tremble when you pick up a glass?

- P: No.

- A: You hear it a little bit.

- Did you ever have problems with your voice?

- That you were trembling?

- P: I have a very good voice, always had.

- I played theatre in a theatre group for laymen, from 9 years on until I married at the age of 24.

- I considered joining a theatre group.

- A: Do you perspire easily?

- P: Yes, very easily, but at the moment it is less.

- A: You are in treatment.

- Did the perspiration smell?

- P: No.

- A: All right.

- You told me, " I have been everywhere, also with the professors in Belgium..."

- P: That is a little bit exaggerated.

- A: Yes, but I mean, you went to someone who is a specialist.

- What did the treatment do?

- What about you pain?

- P: The pain is gone, only in sudden, energetic exertions I still have a little pain, other wise I don't.

- I have become a completely different person.

- A: You are another person.

- You are satisfied.

- P: Yes.

- I only wish that my whole life had been like it is at the moment.

- A: What has changed mostly?

- What is the most important thing for you?

- P: Being satisfied.

- According to me happiness is nothing but being satisfied.

- A: All right.

- This was Mercurius M or 10 m and he reacted beautifully.

- You see, the appearance of Mercurius is that of a solidly built man.

- Maybe you could mix it up with Kali bichromicum, but we will talk about it later.

- Mercurius is a solidly built man.

- Arsenicum on the contrary is thin.

- In Arsenicum you have the feeling that you can’t touch him too much, otherwise he will fall down.

- You feel that there is no energy.

- That is a big difference.

- I'm sure that many Jewish people are Arsenicum, these white, dark haired, narrow, long people who wear very fine clothes.

- Their clothes are made from very fine materials, much more sophisticated, like what Aurum wears.

- You don't find these materials in a normal shop, they are so fine.

- And when you see them you see their white skin, the paleness, the dark hair, a black hat and dark clothes, that is the typical appearance of Arsenicum.

- Between Arsenicum and Mercurius there is a big difference, there are no resemblance.

- Mercurius has very beautiful clothes, but these are clothes which everyone wears.

- Arsenicum wears clothes which nobody wears.

- That is the difference.

- Question: "..." (not understandable)

- A: Yes, but many remedies can have this, Kali carbonicum, Anacardium and many other remedies.

- But a normal German, is that Arsenicum?

- I mean a German farmer, a solidly built man, is that Arsenicum?

- No, not really.

- The army was not Arsenicum.

- The army was not feeble.

- Arsenicum are weak people, anxious.

- Think about the anxiety at night in Arsenicum.

- The Germans were not anxious at that time; they had courage and they worked very hard.

- Arsenicum is very fastidious, very clean, but they are anxious and the appearance is completely different.

- Mercurius is fastidious because of the organisation.

- The organisation doesn't function without the fastidiousness, without correctness.

- The organisation doesn't allow bad discipline.

- That is completely different in Arsenicum.

- Arsenicum puts his pencil here.

- Mercurius doesn't care where he puts the pencil, whether he puts it here or there, it is not important for them.

- Remark: ".." (not understandable)

- A: In the Repertory you will only find symptoms which have been proved.

- There is the symptom " sudden impulse to kill", but we have to try to find out what is behind all these symptoms.

- That is behind all these symptoms.

- That is Homoeopathy, try to find out what is going on in someone.

- What is going on in Carbo animalis, what is going on in Bufo?

- Why do we have this symptom of anger when alone, rage when alone?

- Why is all that?

- We have to try to understand.

- Vithoulkas built the essence of Mercurius on the hypersensitivity.

- Mercurius is sensitive to warmth, sensitive to cold, Mercurius is sensitive to noise, but when it is not loud enough he doesn't hear.

- That is the psychological idea.

- I mean, mercuriusis inflexible.

- They have difficulties with homeostasis.

- Normally, we perspire when it is too warm and so we can tolerate the warmth.

- When it is cold there is another reaction.

- Also on the mental level Mercurius wants everything in the right place-because of the inflexiblility Mercurius cannot adapt himself to many changes.

- Not too much to the right, not too much to the left, too much warmth is not good, too much cold is not good, too loud is not good, too soft is not good either.

- That is the idea of Mercurius, the inflexibility, and therefore he is sensitive to everything.

- I think there is no contradiction in what I say and the essence of Vithoulkas.

- Maybe the approach is a little bit different.

- He says that they are weak people.

- Yes, maybe they become weak after long suffering, but in fact they are very strong.

- Strong in the following sense: when you have a tree and there is some wind it will bend.

- That is a strong, but flexible tree.

- It will not break.

- But Mercurius will break when the wind is too strong.

- And Mercurius is a remedy for strokes, for sclerosis.

- Don forget that Mercurius is complementary to Aurum.

- Mercurius can go into an Aurum state when he can't reach his goal.

- He starts doubting and goes into an Aurum state.

- Nobody is Aurum, it depends on the external circumstances.

- The same goes for Natrum muriaticum, Ignatia, Sepia, Nux vomica or for Colocynthis, Staphisagria, Causticum.

- You can go from one state to another depending on what is going on at a certain moment.

- Question: "..." (not understandable)

- A: Yes, kidney stones are an expression of the Mercurius idea.

- Mercurius has calcification in the veins, obstruction in the veins, stones everywhere.

- If you have Mercurius stones you will have the whole Mercurius picture with salivation, perspiration, sensitivity towards touch and soon.

- The stones are not important, the whole picture is important.

- But we cannot understand the whole picture in every case, for example, with small remedies like Polis magnetis australis.

- Do you know that remedy?

- For ingrowing toe nails and impotency.

- But why is it so?

- We cannot understand and therefore peculiar, particular symptoms are so important to indicate the remedy.

- In this case there is another interesting differential diagnosis, namely Kali carbonicum.

- Why could it be Kali carbonicum?

- Answer: " Because of the essence: intellectual control, with holding the feelings, tension, the sense of duty, sturdy, dogmatic.

- The aggravation at night

- A: At what time does Kali Carbonicum wake up?

- Answer: "Between 2 and 3 o'clock."

- A: All right, the duty.

- But did he do his duty?

- More than his duty?

- Concerning the duty where does Mercurius differentiate from Kali Carbonicum?

- Mercurius is persevering, he does his job properly, but what does he say about his family, answer: "He neglects them."

- A: Yes, he neglects them and he took his work home.

- At night he thought about it the whole time, how he goes on with his work.

- Kali carbonicum also does his work properly, but also at home he will do his duty as a father.

- That is the big difference between Mercurius and Kali carbonicum.

- Remark: " I think that Mercurius also has more energy than Kali carbonicum."

- A: Yes, more energy in the sense of syphilitic energy, energy that damages himself.

- Mercurius gets ulcerations, perforation and you see with them the feeling of not being ready, for examples, in colitis ulcers.

- They have the urge and after stool the urge is still there.

- In Nux Vomica there is the pain, but the tenesmus after stool is gone, that is not so in Mercurius.

- This feeling of not being ready is an expression of the psyche.

- They always have to go on, they cant stop, as you can watch in the Germany and the South African economy, the apartheid.

- That is very, very narrow- minded and self- destructive.

CASE2

Amenorrhea and acne

Mercurius solubilis

- Woman, 26 years old

- A: You are in treatment because you don't have menstrual flow.

- You never had menstrual bleeding?

- P: I did until I was 17 years old.

- A: And then they just disappeared?

- P: I never had them until I was 17 years old and then when I was 17 years old I suddenly got menstrual bleeding.

- A: Were they regular at that time?

- P: No, not regular.

- There were always a few months in between.

- A: When you 17 years old you had your menses with long periods in between.

- P: And after that time, I forgot the date, they disappeared completely.

- A: At what age was that?

- P: When I was about 21 years old.

- A: We tried to find out why the menses disappeared, but we couldn't find anything, except that you saw a movie as a child...

- Or am I wrong?

- P: No, it was a program of a birth for school television.

- A: How old were you at that time?

- P: 12 years old.

- A: Was it so bloody?

- P: No, I don't think that it was so bloody, but probably it made a big impression on me.

- That was the only thing I can remember which could be a possible explanation.

- A: Further we couldn't find any causation.

- There were no particular diseases, no medicines?

- You never took any contraceptive pill?

- P: I did.

- I have been in treatment with a gynecologist for that problem for quite a long time...

- A: Yes, because of that problem.

- But before you never took anything?

- You can take the contraceptive pill as contraception and later on you will see that the periods disappear.

- But that was not the case here?

- P: No.

- A: That was everything.

- Further, it was remarkable that you had quite a lot of acne.

- You still have it a little bit at this moment, but it has become clearly less.

- We will talk about it in a minute.

- Besides, you also had strong hair growth.

- Also on your face?

- P: I don't know.

- It is a little bit more than in most other woman.

- A: Has it become less in the meantime?

- P: It has in increases on my face.

- The hair growth is possibly a sign of too many male hormones.

- There is no rubric for it, but when you see something like that, you think of this remedy immediately; it is one of the remedies which has this.

- A: I also remarked that your teeth are a little bit discolored.

- Thy are a little bit yellow.

- You know that the observations very important.

- If you took with these people and they are laughing, you have to look at their teeth.

- Then you can see whether the teeth have caries or whether they are black.

- If someone has black teeth and they come for psoriasis, you can give Staphisagria.

- Here you see the yellow teeth of Mercurius.

- Mercurius also has abscesses of the teeth, abscesses of the e teeth with a very bad odor of the mouth, salivation and the patients suffer very much especially at night.

- She has yellow teeth.

- If you look under teeth, "discolored, yellow" on page 431 you see some remedies like Mercurius and Thuja.

- The three capital remedies in " discolored black" are China, Mercurius and Staphisagria, Mercurius has gray teeth, "discolored gray": Mercurius.

- A: Did you have caries early?

- P: Yes, indeed.

- A: At what age?

- P: Especially in adolescence, from 14 years on.

- A: No.

- A: And your teeth became yellow, although you didn't take many antibiotics.

- Or did you?

- P: As a child I took antibiotics because of sinusitis.

- Do you think the antibiotics will give a discoloration of the only Tetracycline can discolor the teeth yellowish, not other antibiotics.

- Question: "..." (not understandable, whether fillings of gold can give Aurum symptoms)

- A: No, I don't think this will lead to an Aurum state.

- The reason for Aurum comes from the picture that someone sees in his mind of what he wants to become in life and when someone else tries to destroy that picture, this is the reason for aurum.

- Maybe you can get proving symptoms, but not this deep sadness.

- We know that someone who is susceptible to Mercurius gets Mercurius, other s don't.

- You cannot say that everybody who has amalgam filings gets symptoms from them.

- There is also manganese in the fillings and people who are sensitive to manganese can also get symptoms from it.

- It depends on the individual.

- Some people even dies from aspirin because they are hypersensitive to it.

- In England a new disease has been discovered, a disease in children who die from aspirin.

- But why do they die?

- Because they are hypersensitive to aspirin.

- In chronic rheumatism I first control the teeth and have all the carious teeth extracted and have all the amalgam removed and only then I give the right remedy.

- It often happens that the patient is cured by himself after extraction the bad teeth.

- Vogeli also noticed this many years ago.

- He said that bad teeth can be a reason for rheumatism and usually the remedy is Mercurius.

- A: In your history we found that your tonsils and adenoids have been removed, the adenoids three times, besides having sinusitis.

- You never had inflammation of the middle ear, anyway not that you know.

- So especially inflammation of the tonsils.

- Further, we can say that you are rather chilly.

- Can you tolerate warmth?

- P: Not exaggerated.

- A: You have a limited tolerance to temperature.

- It may not be too warm or too cold.

- Besides, you lied to lie in the sun.

- You can tolerate the sun very well.

- You have little problem with perspiration, also you don't perspire in bed at night.

- You know the rubric, that they do not tolerate heat and Cold?

- You will find this rubric in the generalities "heat and colder.

- " On page 1349.

- It is not only Mercurius.

- Fluoricum acidum is capital and you can mix up Mercurius with Fluoricum acidum, because Fluoricum acidum has also these very early tooth caries and these very deep cracks in the tongue in all directions.

- It is a remedy which is very difficult to understand in children.

- Anyway, it is a differential diagnosis of Mercurius.

- In the rubric "heat and cold aggr." You also see Natrum muriaticum and Graphitis.

- A: You also me that you perspire with cold weather.

- P: Yes, it's disagreeable, cold perspiration.

- A: Does the perspiration have a certain smell?

- P: No.

- A: You sleep on the left side.

- Usually, Mercurius sleeps on the left side.

- They feel worse when they lie on the right side.

- And sweets can aggravate their state.

- A: What did you dream?

- P: Twice I dreamt that my brothers were dead, always a different one.

- I have three brothers.

- Otherwise, I have normal dermas I think.

- Sometimes, I have such unpleasant dreams.

- A: but not so often?

- P: No, really seldom.

- A: During sleep you often had salivation from the mouth.

- You saw it on your pillow.

- P: Yes.

- I notices it.

- Not only Mercurius has salivation at night, also Rhus toxicodendron has it.

- Rhus toxicodendron also has cracks in the tongue and an indented tongue.

- Also Natrum muriaticum has salivation at night.

- It is not always Mercurius.

- A: Put out your tongue.

- P: (puts her tongue out)

- It's trembling.

- So the tongue is trembling, she trembles slightly on putting out the tongue.

- When you ask Natrum muriaticum to put out the tongue they just will put out their tip of the tongue.

- This patient is more open than Natrum muriaticum, she shows more of her tongue.

- A: Did you have problems with a bad odor of the breath?

- P: No.

- A: A particular taste in the mouth?

- P: No.

- A: We also noticed that your hair was greasy quickly?

- P: Yes.

- A: Concerning your food, you preferred highly seasoned food.

- P: Paprika.

- And further I like sweets very much.

- A: What else?

- P: I don't like fat so much.

- A: And butter?

- P: Also no particular.

- A: An aversion to butter?

- Rather no butter?

- P: No butter.

- Mercurius has a desire and aversion to butter, like Natrum muriaticum has "desire and aversion to salt" and "desire and aversion to fish".

- A: You like eggs.

- P: Also milk.

- A: Sweets, but absolutely no fat.

- P: No.

- And I don't like meat so much either.

- A: You don't like to eat meat.

- Your sleep was good.

- You don't tolerate wine?

- P: I will drink some wine, but I become very tired of it.

- A: The stool is normal.

- So, there are relatively few symptoms, therefore the mental picture is important for the differential diagnosis.

- It is remarkable that you are someone who says very little.

- P: Yes.

- A: We could say that you are a closed person.

- Is that a kind of shyness, timidity, or what?

- P: In any case it is also shyness, but I am occupied with myself very much.

- A: You talk very much to yourself?

- P: Yes.

- I'm always thinking.

- In fact, I'm not aware that I talk so little, because I'm occupies in my mind.

- A: Are there certain moments during the day where your mind is occupies very strongly?

- P: I haven't noticed it.

- A: How is it in bed in the evening?

- P: I will go through the day again.

- A: You are very active in your mind.

- P: I like it.

- It is which remedy?

- "I will go through the day again"?

- Natrum muriaticum.

- A: A second point I noticed was the sensitivity, a little bit hypersensitive.

- P: Yes, too sensitive.

- I'm easily hurt, by little things.

- A: It is a kind of injury.

- How do you react when you are hurt?

- P: I withdraw myself much more.

- A: Are you annoyed?

- P: Yes, then I'm annoyed.

- A: You are easily offended?

- You see, it is very difficult.

- Differential diagnosis for which remedy?

- For Natrum muriaticum.

- She is very closed, she has fear of being hurt, put then the annoyance comes up.

- It is a very difficult differential diagnosis.

- A: Can you get excited internally easily?

- P: Yes, but always internally.

- I will never express it.

- A: That is very typical for you.

- P: Yes, I think so.

- A: I also noticed during the consultation that you are rather rational, that your thinking has the upper hand.

- P: Yes, I put my mind above my feelings.

- A: So that you would have a strong armour.

- And this is not Natrum muriaticum.

- Natrum muriaticum is overwhelmed by his feelings and causes the illness.

- Natrum muriaticum is not rational, I mean, they don't put the mind above the feelings.

- Natrum muriaticum is a big mountain of feelings.

- She says, "I have my feelings under control."

- But nevertheless she is very sensitive.

- P: Yes, that is because I am so sensitive.

- Therefore I leave the domination of my feelings to the mind.

- A: This makes you in some way a little bit hard.

- P: Yes, hard, cool, I might give a rather cold impression, although I'm not that way.

- But well, yes.

- That is like an egg, like Calcarea carbonica.

- Calcarea can be very hard outside, but inside you feel the softness.

- A: Do you also think that you are sensitive towards injustice?

- P: Yes, very much.

- A: You could be a lawyer, a judge or something like that by profession.

- Would you like to have such a profession?

- You are sensitive and for you something has to be this way and nothing else.

- I also think that you are rather strong...

- P: Yes, rather strong, but not easy to persuade.

- A: You aren't easily swayed, you hold on to your own opinion, strong in your way of life.

- I mean that you don't easily take a side path.

- P: Yes.

- She shows a certain anxiety, the way she is sitting there.

- And as a child her tonsils have been removed.

- But can this be Baryta carbonica?

- Why not?

- Answer?

- "She can decide very well."

- A: Yes, her idea is her idea and she won't be easily dissuaded.

- If you tell a Baryta carbonica it is black, they say, "Yes, it is black.

- And after a while when you say it is white, they say, "Oh yes, it is white."

- Baryta carbonica believes everything.

- They are very dependent, but she is very independent.

- P: Although I also think it is a little bit silly to walk the same way.

- A: Yes, that is your character, you can’t change it much.

- So we can say: very conservative.

- That is the second word: conservative, no changes.

- Like preserved vegetables, they are in a bottle and they don't change anymore.

- P: Yes.

- Indeed, I don't like that word, but it is so.

- A: So conservative.

- Three, four years ago when it was a fashion to wear pleated front trousers I bought old fashioned trousers.

- I didn't want these new fashioned trousers and I didn't want to wear them until now.

- For Mercurius it is very difficult to accept the new fashion, they are not flexible enough.

- Also concerning their clothes they are very classical, very conservative.

- A: Easily irritated, but internally offended.

- You are easily offended.

- Would you say that your are very sympathetic?

- P: No.

- A: So, we cannot say that you are very sympathetic.

- That is a characteristic of you.

- Do you see the differential diagnosis with Causticum: sensitive towards injustice.

- But that is not so strong in this patient.

- Causticum on the contrary is very sympathetic, like Phosphorus also.

- A: Often you had discharge.

- You didn't like dancing.

- Very tense before coition, also you can't let yourself go.

- P: I can't give myself.

- A: That was also something which occurred constantly in our conversation.

- Here, you see the idea of Mercurius again, the tension, the trembling, the impossibility to let yourself go.

- During coition you have to throw yourself away.

- She can’t, there is always the tension.

- Which remedy has the most anxiety before coition?

- Kreosotum.

- Even when they think of coition they become anxious.

- Normally, they have dark hair.

- A: This is exactly what could be found in your whole being, that inelasticity, the stiffness.

- That is the sexual level.

- It is not so much the anxiety before coition, more the incapacity to relax yourself, being under control constantly.

- P: Yes.

- A: You have yourself so much under control, you feel the tension writing or eating soup.

- P: Yes.

- A: You are so tense, but your are not aware of it.

- P: yes that is true.

- Here again we have the trembling, trembling while writing or while eating soup.

- When they become old, it is which remedy?

- Plumbum.

- Plumbum in old people, in young people it is mostly Mercurius.

- A: Therefore the symptom: trembling with the hands while eating soup or while writing.

- Another element is also that your are depressed.

- P: A little bit, so that I am bathing in feelings.

- In fact, it is not unpleasant when I am a little bit sad.

- A: You feel well when you are depressed, when your are sad.

- P: Yes.

- It doesn't go so deeply, you understand?

- Again this is Natrum muriaticum element.

- They feel well in their sadness.

- A: No, no, not in the sense that life is without sense, but you are rather in a serious, rain mood.

- P: Yes.

- A: That is the anamnesis.

- On the other hand you like to be consoled.

- Your sensitivity goes in the direction of poetry, in think?

- P: Yes.

- I don't know exactly how I should express, but it is something like writhing poems about it.

- A pleasant sadness inside.

- Again this is difficult to differentiate from Natrum muriaticum.

- Natrum muriaticum can't express his feelings, they have to write them down.

- They can't express themselves during the consultation and later on you will get a letter in which they put all their feelings down.

- Those who can't express their feelings towards other people when they are there, these are closed persons.

- They have the tendency to write or to paint.

- Painting is also a way to express oneself emotionally.

- A: Then we gave you a remedy on May 31, 1986.

- When did you get your menstruation the first time?

- P: It was about six weeks later, I think.

- A: Six weeks after you took the remedy you got your menstruation which you didn't have for years.

- You must be very happy with it.

- P: Yes.

- Unfortunately, you don't see it so clear, but you can still see the greasy skin in the face.

- It is a rubric which you can take into account, "face, greasy" on page 375/ all the remedies here are acne remedies.

- A: Well, the fact that the menstruation disappeared, you can say what you want, and it also has to do with the fact that you can't let yourself go.

- They say it is speculation but it goes together with it.

- Besides, you often suffered from constipation.

- You withheld everything.

- Also, in uncontrolled moments, for example, at night, there was salivation.

- Then menstruation was all right?

- P: Yes, rather good.

- A: How long did the bleeding last?

- P: About four days.

- A: And the nest month?

- P: I got my menstruation again, but a little bit less.

- A: The next month your menstruation was a little bit less.

- Therefore we have to load our gun again and shoot the right energy.

- Your acne also has improved.

- It has become clearly better.

- P: Yes.

- A: You are still closed.

- There is still the quiet withdrawal.

- I can't recognize the anger.

- Probably, I haven't given you any impulses which cause anger.

- P: No, there is no reason for.

- A: But we have to repeat the remedy.

- We will never make you a person who is open, but...

- The best profession you could choose would be lawyer.

- What do you study?

- P: I studied to be a correspondent of foreign languages.

- A: We will repeat the remedy now, four months after the first dose.

- Six weeks after the remedy she had her menstruation for four days, the next month again, but less, the next month also again, but also less.

- You see, how the remedy leaves off, and the you have to repeat the remedy.

- In the meantime it's quite a long time ago and she got her menstruation without any problems, but I had to repeat Mercurius a few times.

- Question: "..." (not understandable)

- A: No.

- I will show you another case where the hay fever disappeared after Nux vomica, but appeared again.

- After Mercurius her hay improved, but also the trembling and the general state improved.

- I want to say that you can prescribe superficial remedies which act a little bit, but you have to understand your patient in depth.

- It is not true that she would have needed both remedies.

- You can do something with both remedies, but only one remedy is the correct remedy.

- Question: "..." (not understandable)

- A: We have to be delectable.

- When I give a remedy to a patient, he is better for four months and he relapses then, can I say, "Go home, my teacher told me to wait for one year."?

- Let us be human.

- When you see that a person relapses you have to repeat the remedy.

- How often a person relapses depends on the circumstances in which they live.

- There are patients who we give remedies and they stay good for five years, others relapse after six months, another one already after four weeks, because these are all different people, living in different situations.

- I think Vithoulkas only wants to warn us not to repeat too soon.

- But I showed already a few times that you can't do damage when you repeat the right remedy.

- What we see when we start working homoeopathy, is that we change too quickly from a remedy.

- You can only wait if you are sure about the remedy, and that is the problem.

- You can delude yourself that this patient is better, because you are involved emotionally in your prescription.

- After so many years when you get the menstruation six weeks after the remedy it has to be the correct remedy.

- And when she comes back four months later and the menstruation disappeared, what should I do?

- I had to repeat the remedy.

- But it does not only depend on the patient how long the remedy acts, also on the remedy itself.

- Some remedies work very, very quickly and some work apparently only slowly.

- There is a difference in repeating.

- It is easier to repeat Pulsatilla than Alumina, for example.

- There is something else we see in our Center.

- In very strong aggravations we repeat the remedy in a higher potency and we have very good results with it.

- It is also very interesting to give the wrong remedy first, like in the case of Calcarea carbonica and Natrum muriaticum.

- Before she had both remedies, without any result.

- Therefore you can be sure that it is Mercurius and neither Calcarea nor Natrum muriaticum acted.

CASE3

Loss of hair

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 55 years old

- July 25, 1987

- A: You were already here in 1986.

- Your problem was hair loss.

- P: Yes.

- A: A few years before you also had complaints with your back and they went away with Sulphur.

- The remedy even cured you from acute pains in the back.

- But apparently, there was problem at work.

- P: I don't remember very well.

- But I feel much more different now than usual.

- A: All right, let's listen to the story.

- We don't really know the reason for the hair loss.

- At that time you were bald.

- Before it was even worse.

- I only made this video when I saw that the remedy acted.

- A: Even the hair of the right eyebrow was gone.

- P: No, it was the left one.

- A: Oh yes, the left.

- There was really no hair at all.

- The hair loss started at the back of your head.

- Now, it is growing slowly there.

- And also on top of your head you were bald.

- P: And at the sides.

- I lost my hair in different places, it was not equally everywhere.

- A: Now, the hair is really growing again.

- Since when?

- P: Since a few months, first very slowly.

- A: I will record it now to show the difference later when it grows further.

- Turn your head to the right...

- All right.

- And then to the left...(shows on video the growing hair).

- Anyway, it didn't go well at work.

- You had problems with your colleagues, who according to you didn't do their job seriously enough.

- He is teacher in a technical school.

- Someone else didn't do his job seriously enough and he became angry.

- That was for me the reason for his hair loss.

- P: He did his job seriously enough, but he was not honest towards his colleague.

- It caused me quite a lot of troubles.

- In the meantime he has to stay at home.

- A: What do you mean?

- P: He has high blood pressure and he is at home since Easter.

- He is a very fat person who has to lose weight and they can't get the blood pressure in control.

- He always had some problems with his heart.

- He was always such a hot tempered person, an angry person.

- A: Anyway, he was not congenial.

- P: Yes.

- A: You reacted by bottling up everything.

- Internally, you started to become angry.

- You are a person who doesn't like untidiness and things like that.

- You are a rather soft person.

- P: Yes.

- I also don't tolerate falseness and sneakiness.

- This colleague always did something behind someone else's back, he didn't go to the person and say it immediately to him.

- There were always tensions and I couldn't tolerate it.

- He says he is a soft person; then we suppose that the cause for the hair loss was suppressed anger and the hair fell out at the back of the head.

- To which remedy does this point?

- To Staphisagria.

- If you look in the rubric " anger, ailments, suppressed, from" you see Aurum, Chamomilla, Ignatia, Sepia and Staphisagria capital.

- Staphisagria also has hair falling at the occiput- the place where the hair falls in priests.

- Many priests need Staphisagria or Conium and everyone knows why.

- I gave him Staphisagria, without any result.

- He also got Kali carbonicum, but it didn't do anything.

- You see the swelling of the upper eyelid so that you can't see his eyelashes.

- That is a sign for Kali carbonicum.

- Besides, he is inflexible, someone who is very duty minded, nevertheless Kali carbonicum didn't change anything about his hair falling.

- He was already in treatment for one year and I couldn't find his remedy.

- You see how difficult it often is.

- A: Internally, you were angry.

- It was an anger which you couldn't let out.

- P: Yes, he was the boss and I couldn't say anything.

- You can say something in a very nice way that this or that has to be done, but this was impossible her and I said to myself, " You better shut up."

- A: By character you are a person who likes discipline very much.

- P: Yes.

- And that is the difference.

- He sensitive and Staphisagria is the most sensitive remedy, but does Staphisagria like discipline so much?

- The most important in Staphisagria are the feelings, the heart, the emotions, and he is sensitive, but he likes it to be tidy.

- You don't find this inflexibility in Staphisagria.

- A: You like order, discipline.

- You don't like people who some times do this sometimes do that.

- You want everything to be done in a tidy way, that everything is done according to the rules.

- P: Yes, I don't like it this way and another time that way.

- It has to be accurate.

- A: If it is not so, you can become angry.

- P: Yes.

- I could talk about it with the intellectual colleagues, but not with him, it didn't go anymore, it was over.

- In these cases you always see the internal anger.

- A: You are not known as a person who is easily angry or hot tempered.

- P: No.

- A: You are rather known as a soft person.

- P: Yes.

- My colleague asked me to come back to school.

- I said, "Wait, I will come back, but not yet."

- I would like to go to work next month.

- A: I didn't let you go to work since January to avoid the influence to which you are opposed.

- First, I gave you some remedies which didn't give any results.

- Your hair didn't grow.

- P: Yes, I even had more hair falling.

- Don't think that homeopathic remedies can do miracles.

- If someone has problems because of the circumstances he lives in, try to get him out of that.

- If you don't do that, you will have problems.

- After the remedy there might be an amelioration, but he will loose his energy in held surrounding, in the school.

- Maybe he will cure by himself, without a remedy, if you take him away from his negative surrounding.

- I don't know.

- You see the same with Hepar patients with asthma.

- The last two, three weeks it was everyday here and they all got a relapse.

- Why?

- Because of the dryness.

- These are unwanted circumstances to which they react in sensitive way, where they lose energy.

- And then they start doubting and ask whether the remedy was right.

- Question: "What happens when you give the remedy in such a dry period?"

- A: There will be slight amelioration, which is not sufficient to conquer the bad influence of the weather.

- Remark: But sometimes there are situations where you can't take the patient away."

- A: That is the difficulty and that is what G. Vithoulkas means with a blockade, for example, the husband syndrome.

- Everyone marries a woman because of her beautiful blue eyes or because of something else and after the marriage the problems start.

- Problems with their mother-in law, with their father-in-law, there are constantly fights.

- Your recognize the remedy, you give the remedy- no result.

- That is logic, that is because of the bad circumstances.

- When I knock with a hammer on your head you need Natrum Sulphuricum.

- You take it, you are better and then I take the hammer again...

- We can go on with this, but it is better to put the hammer away.

- That is what is meant with the husband syndrome.

- Don't think that a homeopathic remedy can change everything, notwithstanding negative external influences.

- So try to get your patient out of the bad influences, if it is possible.

- A: Only after the remedy of February 25, the hair started growing again.

- Afterwards the hair started growing again.

- Do you understand what I meant here?

- He was at home since January.

- The remedy which I gave him in January- I think it was Staphisagria or Kali carbonicum I don't know exactly-didn't do anything, although he was at home.

- This means that the fact that he was not in school didn't do anything.

- There was only an amelioration after the last remedy.

- A: After the anger at school and with your colleague your brother died in August last year.

- Did you have hair loss at that time?

- P: Yes, I had.

- A: Before your brother died?

- P: Well yes, before my brother died there was a small spot at the back of my head.

- I saw it the first time in May, 1986.

- A: That's when you saw it the first time.

- But then your brother didn't die yet?

- P: No.

- A: For us it was difficult to judge whether you had hair falling because of grief when your brother died.

- But the hair falling already started before your brother died.

- P: Yes, maybe it started in February, March, April last year, but in increased after my brother died.

- A: Last year in February you had problems with your colleague.

- P: Yes, for a few years.

- A: Finally, you reacted to it with hair loss.

- That was your story.

- Probably, we can say that the hair loss was caused by suppressed anger which you couldn't let come out.

- P: Yes, probably.

- A: You did not agree with the way your boss acted, it was not serious.

- You reacted in a way so that you said, " All right, do what you want", and then you didn't fight anymore, you withdrew yourself.

- P: Yes, that was so.

- A: All right, let's suppose it was this way, because you feel clearly better since you got the remedy on February 25.

- It was also remarkable that you often had salivation at night.

- P: When you were sleeping there was salivation from the mouth.

- I examined the case and then the remedy became clear to me, because you had this salivation.

- This is one of the keys to open the door, to come to Mercurius, the salivation at night.

- Then I tried to understand and then I was sure.

- It could have been Natrum muriaticum because of the grief, or Staphisagria, or Kali carbonicum.

- I couldn't really tell whether the death of his brother was the cause or because of the problems at school.

- A: You didn't know whether the hands were trembling while eating soup, but you had a trembling tongue when you put it out.

- If you put It out, you see that you have a coated tongue.

- You also had a bad taste in the mouth in the morning.

- Do you still have this?

- P: No.

- Always, sometimes.

- A: Then, your gums were pulled away.

- There is no rubric "paradontosis" (periodontal disease) in the Repertory, but we could take" gums detached from teeth" on page 399.

- Mercurius is capital, also Kali Phosphoricum and Carbo vegetables.

- It is a big rubric, but our remedy is capital.

- A: Do you smoke?

- P: Yes.

- A: Do you have problems with perspiration at night?

- P: No.

- A: at that time you also couldn't describe what the taste was in your mouth.

- P: No.

- You know that Mercurius has this metallic taste in the mouth, as if they have a fork in their mouth or something else metallic.

- Often, it is also a sweet taste.

- A: I saw you again after about one month and you said, " In general I feel much better.

- Some days I feel all right, some days I don't feel all right.

- I want to be left alone.

- Often pain in the right shoulder, when I lift my arm."

- P: When I move suddenly I have it sometimes, but very seldom.

- A: It didn't go away.

- On February 25 I gave you a remedy, then on March 30 and one month later, on April 27, 1987 you got Foliata squalosa.

- Then I saw clearly that your hair started growing.

- Now, it is May 27 and for me the comparison with before is spectacular.

- Therefore I take it on video and after about six months we will take it on video again, to see how your hair looks.

- Now, you could say that your hair has grown because you didn't have to go to school to teach, but in the first two months, when I didn't find the remedy, the hair didn't grow.

- P: That's right.

- I didn't repeat the remedy because there was no reason to repeat the remedy.

Feedback (july 22, 1987)

- A: So, I saw you in May.

- Now, it is July 22.

- At that time you had problems with hair falling, it was a big problem.

- You were nearly bald.

- P: Yes, completely bald.

- A: And now your hair is beautiful.

- Beautiful.

- Even the hair above the eyebrows has grown again.

- Turn around.

- And here it also starts growing.

- There are no real bald places anymore, the hair is growing everywhere.

- Fantastic.

- And even the hair above the eyebrows which had fallen out, is normal again.

- All right.

- But now you have another problem which we don't know yet.

- What is your problem now?

- P: Now, I get pain in my back again.

- A: Originally, these were your complaints in 1986.

- I treated you with a remedy to which you reacted very well.

- Then you relapsed, because of the misfortune at your school.

- That was this story and then your hair started falling out and now the hair is growing again and the complaints from before, the pain in the back, appear again.

- It is part of the story.

- So pain in the back.

- What do you mean?

- P: Last year, about this period I was here as well.

- It was the sametime.

- I think it is because of the cold.

- I didn't do heavy work or things like that.

- A: Where do you have pain?

- P: Here at side, at the height of the hips.

- A: It is not caused by lifting or things like that?

- P: No.

- I think it is because of the cold.

- The weather was beautiful and in the evening we sat on a terrace and it was a little bit cold.

- You only notice it afterwards.

- A: What kind of pain is this?

- P: Sometimes it pulls in the leg.

- A: Which leg?

- P: More in the right leg.

- The right leg hurts more.

- A: You could say it is a kind of sciatica.

- What causes the most pain?

- When you do what kind of movement?

- P: Standing.

- A: That is interesting.

- Standing aggravates.

- There is a remedy in the Materia Medica which has complaints while standing.

- P: And also when I go walking, but it is really worse while standing, it is impossible.

- A: Do you think that something else has changed in the meantime?

- I mean, in general?

- P: Yes, in general I feel better.

- A: Do you have salivation at night?

- P: Not too warm.

- My wife always complains that it is too warm, but I don't suffer from it.

- A: Do you perspire easily?

- P: Yes, I do.

- When it was a little bit warm a few days ago, I did.

- A: Where?

- P: In my face.

- The water runs down my face.

- A: And the feet?

- P: That's all right.

- It is not so bad as before.

- Before I always had hot perspiring feet, but now I have very little complaint with it.

- A: How are your feet at the moment?

- P: In bed, I still suffer a little bit from it.

- I have to put them out of the covers.

- A: That is all I have to know.

- At the time that you had hair falling you didn't suffer from hot feet.

- P: It was already gone before.

- A: You can see how it developed.

- Now, it becomes difficult.

- This patient already comes to the Center for many years, maybe since 1981, 1982.

- At that time he got Sulphur for his sciatica and was cured.

- That was long before the hair falling then he developed a Mercurius sated because of the problems in school and his hair was falling out.

- It is cured, but now he comes back with this sciatica, for which he already came a few years ago.

- Standing aggravates, puts his feet out of the covers.

- What will we do?

- Repeat Mercurius?

- But if you look under sciatica, "pain, lower limbs, sciatica, standing aggr."

- On page 1065 Mercurius is no there.

- Besides, he puts his feet out of the covers and Sulphur is one of the most important remedies.

- It is really difficult to decide what you should do.

- Or you can wait or give this or that remedy.

Feedback (november 1,1987)

- A: I gave you a remedy in February and your hair is really healthy again.

- I showed your head on the video on the video.

- (Alfons admires the head of the patient enthusiastically)

- You even have curls!

- And how it is shining!

- And how healthy this hair feels!

- His hair is beautiful, better than before.

- A: Also the hair above the eyebrows is fantastic again.

- P: It is very remarkable.

- A: Yes.

- And the color comes back, the normal colour.

- S: How are you donning in general?

- P: I think very well.

- I am a little cold, but otherwise....

- A: Your sleep is well?

- P: I sleep very well, but in the morning I wake up very early.

- Maybe it had something to do with change of the time...

- A: Tell me, how is the salivation?

- P; There is none.

- A: Do you perspire at night?

- P: Last night yes, but otherwise I don't.

- A: show me your tongue.

- P: (Shows the tongue)

- A: It is not coated; anymore, but it is still a little bit indented.

- P: Yes.

- A: Further you don't need anything else for your cold.

- Only when you become ill seriously, then you get something.

- For trivialities you better have Holland gin.

- (laughter).

- How is work?

- Has your colleague returned yet?

- P: No.

- He is still not there yet.

- But I saw him one day before the holidays and he got a prolongation of one month.

- He thought to get two months, but it has been refused.

- In fact, don't think that he will come back.

- If he is 14 days at school, he can't tolerate it anymore.

- He is already 58 years old.

- A: It is better to retire.

- P: Yes, he already worked for 35 years, then it is no problem.

- Now he gets Sac lac.

- Before I gave him Sulphur.

- Maybe, the sciatica would be better with Sac-lac, I don't know.

- Anyway, Sulphur didn't disturb the development.

- He's doing very well.

- Remark: "..." (not understandable, it concerns the consequences of suppressed anger in Mercurius)

- A: Yes, that is for me that nucleus, the essence of Mercurius, " ailments from suppressed anger".

- Mercurius has to be capital in this rubric on page 2,

CASE4

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 50 years old

- A: You have a terrible toothache.

- P: Yes, a terrible toothache.

- A: Where?

- P: Here.

- A: And where does it radiate?

- P: To the outside of my eye, on the inside, here at the lower side and also here in the back.

- It might be there as well, but it is not always so.

- He says toothache, but he points to the trigeminus.

- A: A terrible toothache.

- P: It's incredible.

- A: How does the pain appear?

- P: There is a constant pain, and then within two or three minutes it comes and it starts pulling upwards.

- It lasts for r1/2 to 3/4 hour, then it disappears slowly.

- A: It concerns a basic pain which develops to a peak and which lasts for about 1/2 hour.

- P: It comes within two, three minutes and it decreases slowly.

- It is on the right side.

- The pain is constantly there and often it because very strong within two, there minutes.

- Because the pain is on the right side there is a differential diagnosis for which remedy?

- For Belladonna.

- Belladonna is one of the most important remedies for right-sided neuralgia is, but the way the pain appears, within two, three minutes, that is too slow for Belladonna.

- Belladonna pains are sudden pains.

- And don't forget that Belladonna is not only an acute remedy.

- We have cured patient with migraine and the syndrome of Horton who suffered for many years with one dose of Belladonna.

- A: What else do you feel together with the pain?

- P: Quite a lot of salivation.

- I also have the impression that I use many handkerchiefs while blowing my nose, but in fact nothing is coming out.

- When I blow my nose, there is only very clear liquid, nothing else.

- And then I have difficulties with my vision.

- I have the impression that I am squinting, but indeed I see as well as ever.

- And of course preparing.

- It is running downwards.

- We can say that this is a neuralgic pain radiating from the jaw to the head and there is salivation.

- Where can we find this?

- Under mouth " salivation, headache, during" on page 418.

- Do you have the additions?

- They are Iris, Kali bichromicum, Manganum, opium phosphorous, Sepia and the last one is Chenopodium anthelmintica.

- Chenopodium anthelmintica is a remedy mainly for old people with two different diseases.

- That is apoplexy with aphasia and hemiplegia and the other is Meniere's disease with the peculiar that they are deaf for the human voice, but other noises cause them pain.

- Then, you have pain in a particular place, namely under the right scapula.

- Which is the most important remedy for headache from noises?

- Terrible headache?

- Also Meniere's disease, vertigo in old people.

- Theridion.

- Theridion in toothache from noises, headache from noises.

- Then he also says that he is perspiring.

- Look under "perspiration, pains from" on page 1299 and under "perspiration, headache, during" on page 1297.

PERSPIRATION,HEADACHE, during : Ant-c., apis., arg-m., arn., ars., canth., caust., chin-s., glon., graph., hyos., kali-n., lachn., lyc., mag-s., merc., nat-s., op., ox-ac., plat., puls., tarent.

- There are only two remedies in second degree: Mercurius and Arsenicum.

- So perspiration from pains, perspiration during headache and salivation during headache.

- P: You see, I describe them as toothache.

- Now, I also have it.

- It hurts from here above the tooth to the back.

- When I go with my tongue over the teeth I can provoke pain.

- He says that he can provoke pain when he touches his teeth with his tongue.

- What does this mean?

- " Touch, slight, agg."

- On page 1407.

- Belladonna also has pain which comes suddenly and disappears suddenly and an aggravation from slight touch, but Belladonna does not have the perspiration and the salivation.

- There is also China in the rubric.

- China is the remedy which has aggravation by slight touch and amelioration from hard pressure, for example, headache in malaria.

- Colchicum has aggravation by slight touch in an acute attack of gout, Ignatia with hysterical pain, Lachesis and Mezereum in Herpes zoster.

- There is also Nux vomica, Phosphorus, Stannum, Phosphoricum acidum, but Mercurius is really important here.

- A: I will take care that you will get rid of it very soon.

- I will give you the remedy and today you take one spoonful and this week the pains have to be gone.

- What about your tooth?

- P: This tooth is loose, but not the one which causes the pain.

- They took X-rays of this tooth about 20 times, but nothing could be found.

Feedback (4 days later)

- A: You had terrible pains.

- " You can't live with it", you told me.

- I gave you a remedy.

- How did it go?

- P: It was as bad as before for two days.

- A: So you had more pain?

- P: Yes.

- And then the pain was nearly gone, at least, I could tolerate it and now I still have a little bit of pain.

- It still hurts, but in fact I don't have any pain anymore.

- It is still there.

- I feel that there is still something.

- A: Did you notice something else, beside the pain?

- There was an aggravation of the pain for two days.

- I gave you a high potency, 10 M.

- But did you feel something else?

- P: Nothing particular.

- A: Do you still perspire so much?

- P: Yes.

- Although I don't have pain anymore I'm still perspiring when it has to come.

- It feels as if it has to come, but it doesn't I'm only perspiring and yawning.

- A: Do you still have excessive salivation in the mouth?

- P: In fact, it is less.

- A: In fact, the perspiring should diminish as well gradually.

- Something in the background.

- And here, at the outside of the eye I feel there is still something.

- A: Can you still provoke the pain when you touch the teeth with your tongue?

- P: No.

- A: The remedy will do its job.

- When you relapse I only have to look into the file to see what you got and repeat the remedy.

- P: Otherwise I don't need to repeat it?

- A: It might be.

- You work rather hard.

- You are working at night and that is opposed to nature.

- P: But I can steep very well.

- You see, in a few minutes the remedy was clear, because the symptoms were clear: the aggravation by slight touch, the salivation, the perspiration.

- Don't give Mercurius too often, because when it is wrong and also often when it is not wrong-you could produce Mercurius symptoms.

- It's enough to give a teaspoonful for two days.

- And don't give higher potencies, M, 10M, 50M, and so on.

- I'm anxious for that in Mercurius, not in Bryonia, Phosphorus or other remedies.

- What is the antidote of Mercurius?

- Normally, which remedy appears when Mercurius is wrong?

- Hepar sulphuris.

CASE5

Tonsillitis

Mercurius solubilis

- Man,40 years old

- A: I have influenza.

- A: What do you mean by influenza?

- P: When I got up yesterday morning I had pain in the legs.

- A: In both legs?

- P: Yes.

- On Sunday evening I also had swollen lymph glands and also fever.

- A: What else do you feel?

- Pain in the legs.

- Everywhere or only below?

- P: Everywhere, all the way down.

- A: Do you feel the pain in the muscles or in the bones?

- P: More in the muscles, I think.

- A: You don't have pain in the bones?

- P: In the knees, a little bit.

- That is very important.

- Ask where they have pain, in the muscles or in ht e bones.

- There are different remedies.

- Which remedies have sore pain in the muscles?

- Answer: " Arnica."

- A: Yes, Arnica in colds and influenza.

- Answer: " Eupatorium perfoliatum."

- A: Eupatorium in the muscles?

- No, in the bones.

- Answer: "Rhus toxicodendron."

- A: Rhus toxicodendron, sore pain, better by motion.

- Answer: " Gelsemium."

- A: Gelsemium, sore pain, worse by movement.

- I mean, they have to lie down.

- Answer: " Nux vomica."

- A: Nux vomica.

- Is Nux vomica better or worse by motion/ if you look in the generalities " pain, sore, bruised": Baptisia, Bryonia, Chelidonium, Plumbum, and "motion, amel.": Causticum, Pyrogenium, Rhus toxicodendron and Tuberculinum.

- You can also look in the extremities, "pain, sore, bruised, chill, during" on page 1126: Arnica, Baptisia, Nux vomica, Rhus toxicodendron, Tuberculinum.

- On one hand Baptisia has aggravation by motion, but on the other hand he can't lie still, because everything feels too hard and because of the mental symptom that they try to get the parts of their body together.

- Concerning motion Baptisia is between Bryonia and Rhus toxicodendron.

- Then Baptisia has this bad odor from mouth, and everything stinks in Baptisia; the stool, the urine, the breath.

- That is the differential diagnosis with Mercurius.

- We could give Bryonia, Rhus toxicodendron or Mercurius instead of the right remedy, namely Baptisia.

- It Baptisia has stinking Diarrhoea during an acute disease, if goes along with great weakness.

- Baptisia is also a remedy in septicemia.

- It is a very dangerous remedy with an intoxicated expression of the face.

- But what I wanted to tell you is that Tuberculinum has these sore pains, as well in chill as when warm during fever.

- Tuberculinum is very important.

- A Tuberculinum bronchitis or bronchopneumonia starts with a picture of influenza.

- They have pain everywhere, then they start coughing, a superficial cough, and then the fever comes, a very high fever.

- When it is all right a very thick expectoration comes out.

- When the resistance is not very strong they get a superficial cough and a pneumonia with a bronchial abscess which is usually on the left side.

- A: When do you have the most complaints?

- The whole day?

- P: Yes, the whole day.

- A: Not at night?

- P: Yes, I do.

- In any case at night.

- I wake up from it.

- A: You also had swellings of the lymph glands?

- P: Yes.

- A: Do you have pain somewhere else?

- P: No.

- A: No pain the throat?

- P: It radiates to my ears.

- A: Open up your mouth.

- P: (opens his mouth)

- A: A red throat.

- Three purulent spots on the left tonsil.

- Completely red and swollen.

- Show me your tongue.

- Very coated.

- So you have more pain at night.

- P: Yes.

- A: I notice that you perspire.

- There are perspiration drops on your forehead.

- Did you perspire last night?

- P: Yes, but I also had cold shivers.

- When I come out of bed, I am cold.

- A: Do you want to be covered up the whole time?

- P: Yes, absolutely.

- When he puts the covers away he becomes cold.

- Where can we find this?

- For example, " chill, uncovering, undressing" on page 1275, Mercurius is a two.

- But there are other rubrics.

- Remark: " Chill, bed in, rising from agg.'"

- A: Is that in the Repertory/ that is very interesting.

- "Chill, bed in, rising from agg." On page 1263 and " chill, bed in, putting hand out of bed":

CHILL,BED IN,putting hand out of bed : Bar-c., canth., Hep., phos., Rhus-t., sil.

Baryta carbonica, Hepar sulphuris, Rhus toxicodendron as capital remedies.

- The differential diagnosis between Hepar, Rhus toxicodendron and Mercurius is often not easy.

- Look on page 1410 in the generalities, " uncovering, single part, agg.".

- The most important remedies are Hepar, Rhus toxicodendron and Silicea.

- There is another rubric, "sneezing, uncovering, from " on page 351: Hepar, Rhus toxicodendron and Mercurius.

- The difference between Hepar, Rhus toxicodendron and Mercurius is that Hepar and Rhus toxicodendron are much more sensitive to cold than Mercurius.

- When they put one finger out of bed, they are cold already.

- Therefore Hepar wants to be covered up to the nose.

- Mercurius is not so sensitive.

- The perspiration is also very important.

- If you look under "perspiration, night, lasting all night without relief" on page 1294, there is Hepar and Mercurius.

PERSIPARATION,NIGHT,lasting all night without relief : Hep., kali-c., Merc.

- In Mercurius it is important that the perspiration is viscid ( STICKY ).

- A: Are you thirsty?

- P: No, not particularly.

- A: All right.

- Then I will take care that it will be gone after a few days, but you have to stay at home until Saturday.

- It is a serious matter.

- Do the lymph glands still hurt when you touch them?

- P: Yes, I feel it, but it is not real pain.

- A: But when I push slightly do you feel it?

- P: Yes, yes.

- A: The lymph glands are sensitive?

- P: Yes, yes.

- When they have enlarged lymph nodes normally they are painful when you touch them.

Feedback

- A: In the meantime a few days have passed and you took a few spoonfuls of the remedy.

- Tell me, how did it go?

- P: The same afternoon I took two spoonfuls and the next morning it was gone.

- Then I took again three spoonfuls in the evening and the next morning again three spoonfuls and today nothing.

- A: It was gone so quickly?

- P: I react very well to that, I know.

- A: Yes, to the right remedy you react very well.

- I will examine your throat..

- Nothing to see, no pus anymore.

- P: The lymph nodes are a little bit swollen.

- I feel that they are a little bit swollen.

- The pain in the legs in gone as well.

- A: Do you feel good?

- P: Yes, slowly I feel better.

- A: That's how it has to be, we don't need more.

- You don't take anything at the moment, but you have to be careful.

- P: Yes, I still have a cold.

- I have to sneeze and to cough a little but.

- But I don't take anything, do I?

- A: You can take home Foliata squalosa and take a few spoonfuls, three times a day one spoonful.

- You see that often it goes quickly, and this with a remedy of which they say that it acts slowly, but it depends on the person.

- P: Yes.

- My son always reacts much better than the other.

- But when I get the right remedy everything is gone within two hours.

- This was a clear picture: the tongue.

- The glands, the smell, the perspiration and the nightly bone pains.

- Remark: "..." (not understandable)

- A: Yes, by character he is also Mercurius, but be careful.

- Mercurius does not always have to have such a violent character.

- You saw that young woman who was rather soft, but withholding?

- This man was also like her.

- If I would ask every patient for his character I would lose too much time.

- If there are clear symptoms for a remedy I will give it and then the next patient comes.

- I only ask for the character when I'm not sure about the remedy.

- But here, with this tremulous voice, the nightly pain in the knee and the aggravation by slight touch you can't doubt.

- All right, at the beginning you are still doubting, you will give Rhus toxicodendron because of the pain at night, and he has to go out of bed, but the aggravation by slight touch, that is not Rhus toxicodendron.

- The nightly bone pains are very important for Mercurius.

- I had a patient who came with pain in the vertebral bones and the knees.

- She had a lot of troubles with her husband.

- It was a clear Mercurius picture: she had so much salivation that she had to put a towel underneath her pillow.

- In the hospital they found an osteolytic area in the shin bone and said that these were metastasis from a bone tumor in the vertebrae.

- They came to me and I said that I will try to cure her because the picture of the remedy is so clear.

- She got Mercurius and the pain became better gradually.

- Then behind my back- I don't know why-they went to the university hospital and in a telephone call the doctors told me that there were no osteolytic areas in the scalp.

- I called her husband and asked him what was the matter.

- He said, "In the University hospital they say that they took the wrong X-rays."

- I asked him what they would do now and he said that the thyroid gland has to be removed.

- All right, I let them do it because you may not fight to hold a patient.

- But it was a pity because it was such a beautiful case with metastasis which were gone, the pain which was much better- and then they go somewhere else!

- Maybe Mercurius would have saved her life, I don't know.

- The indications were the nightly bone pains, the very strong salivation and a very strong internal anger towards her husband.

CASE6

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 65 years old

- Now a very interesting case, again an experience.

- I gave him Nux vomica for his hay fever for many years with a good result.

- A: In 1981 I gave you Nux vomica.

- Maybe I didn't know better.

- In 1982 you got Sulphur, which didn't solve the case.

- Then you came back on April 18, 1988.

- P: Although, indeed I felt clearly better after Nux vomica the first time.

- Especially my hay fever was very much better.

- It was gone for 14 days and then I came back.

- The next remedy was stronger.

- I don't know what it was, but you told me you could give a higher potency.

- Then again and after wards I was doing rather well.

- A: With the hay fever.

- P: Yes.

- A: That is very interesting, philosophically.

- First he got Sulphur, it was wrong and then Nux vomica, about four times in the last six years, always a higher potency.

- He says that he was doing very well with his hay fever; I took only one part of him into consideration, I only took his nose into consideration, I forgot the rest.

- P: That was during the period that my daughter ran away from home; I think I came here the first time...

- A: When?

- P: In 1981.

- Although the waiting room was full of patients you took your time to talk with me.

- A: Then I talked to you for one hour.

- That was to find the remedy.

- P: Yes, I think so, but nevertheless...

- A: It seems that you are a person who is very duty minded, aren't you?

- P: Yes, that's very important for me, honesty.

- A: Before I gave you Nux vomica.

- Then you came back; - the hay fever was better for quite a long period?

- P: Yes.

- I got rid of it for about 4 1/2 years or I only had very few complaints, while before I don't know how many medicines I had to take.

- Then I only had to take one box in a year.

- A: In April 1988, after six years you came back, after I gave you Nux vomica in 1982.

- Then you also had hypertension, 200/120 mm Hg.

- P: In 1988?

A: No, in 1982.

- P: Oh yes.

- A: In 1988 you came back with hay fever, which returned.

- You took medicines again.

- P: In 1988?

A: Yes.

- Now, I'm talking about the last consultation.

- BETASERC for vertigo, ALDACTONE for the blood pressure, KALIUM-DIURETTEN because of the lost of calcium by the ALDACTONE.

- In 1982 he came for hay fever and with Nux vomica he was doing very well.

- But he was taking other medicines the whole time, something for the vertigo for the high blood pressure and something for the trembling of the hands while writing - and for his hay fever he came to me.

- That is not right.

- P: Before I took something else, FLUDEX.

- Then I got ALDACTONE, so that the loss o calcium was not too much.

- A: HISMANAL and POLARAMINE, or?

- P: Yes, POLARAMINE.

- A: In April 1988 I wrote down the following: good reaction to Nux vomica.

- That is strange.

- Notwithstanding I was not satisfied to repeat Nux vomica at the last consultation.

- I didn't want to give you the same remedy, because I saw something else in you. By character you are a person who can become rather angry.

- That corresponds with Nux vomica, but someone who becomes angry.

- Especially inside.

- That's right, isn't it?

- P: Yes, yes, it is.

- Inside I'm more angry than you see on the outside.

- A: So, you get annoyed.

- P: Yes.

- I get annoyed myself at many things.

- This is not Nux vomica, now I see what I did wrong.

- P: I don't show it outside, but I get annoyed.

- A: About what especially do you get annoyed?

- P: things that happen which should not happen, things which are not right according to me, that they judge without knowing the thing well.

- That they immediately react in a negative way.

- A: Injustice.

- P: Yes.

- A: Do you become angry about it?

- P: Yes.

- A: So, you are a person to whom injustice is very important.

- Also correctness at work?

- P: Yes.

- A: That everything happens the way things should happen?

- P: Yes.

- A: You also lie a straight line.

- P: Yes.

- Maybe it is because of the profession.

- I am a surveyor there is a corner, a right angle, and everything is determined by it.

- It is always angular and in a straight line, so always right angles.

- A: You have a character like your profession?

- P: Yes, in fact.

- A: A straight and rectangular character.

- P: Yes.

- I also like my job very much.

- I'm not afraid of the difficulties which go along with the profession.

- A: That is you, the straight line?

- P: Yes.

- It may be difficult, but I enjoy it.

- A: Then you became very angry and that was the reason for the high blood pressure- when your daughter....

- P: Yes, I was here on a Sunday morning and in fact I came here completely relaxed.

- I was completely surprised that I had high blood pressure.

- A: Was it on April 18?

- P: No, that was not in 1988, my daughter ran away at an earlier time.

- Than I had very high blood pressure.

- Last week I had 130/ 80 mm Hg.

- A: Which medicines do you still take?

- P: Every day I take ALDACTONE and something else.

- A: We won't stop these medicines.

- P: I can stop them.

- But I can't stop LEXOTAN.

- A: We will talk about it in a while.

- So your daughter ran away from home and you became very angry about it.

- Tell me how did it go? How did you feel about it?

- P: I was astonished.

- My mother- in -low was dying in the hospital and I visited her.

- When I came back home, my daughter was gone.

- We knew that she had a friend.

- She was studying in another town, against our will.

- We forbade her, but she went.

- He paid her room- I didn't anyway.

- She studied until February and then they opened a student café in Leuven and she didn't go on studying.

- But I wanted her to get a diploma.

- A: That is remarkable in your character: You want your children to get a diploma, that they walk a straight line, they will be someone.

- P: Yes, that they attain something.

- A: You are a man who has respect for people who do their job very well.

- You don't like quacks.

- You like a real craftsman job, that your daughter gets a diploma.

- That's the reason why lay homoeopaths don't often see Mercurius patients.

- P: Later on she walked away from this friend - I was right from the beginning.

- She earns her bread, but if she had a diploma it would be better.

- A: It is important for you that she has a diploma, it is not sufficient that she earns money.

- P: Yes, I think so, it is a condition.

- A: You also say that you should earn your bread in a serious way.

- P: Well yes.

- The study was her choice, she could have made it.

- She knew it, I had nothing against it.

- I would like to have a boy who finished the university.

- That was my wish, but I have only two daughters and they were not such good students.

- I think the youngest could have attained more.

- A: So you were right.

- P: In fact, I don't care that I was right.

- My wife took my daughter's side and some other people who in fact didn't have the right to talk about it.

- I think, only my wife and I have the right to.

- For example, a nephew and a niece without any life experiences must not be involved.

- I don't mix myself in the business of the families or talk about the children of other people.

- These people can say, " Now it is over, you are not my daughter any longer."

- And then they start suffering themselves: trembling, high blood pressure, vertigo, stroke, death.

- A: That's how it was.

- That is your character.

- You said that you had a stomach ulcer before.

- P: Yes.

- That was in 1958 or 1959/60.

- Since then I don't suffer from I anymore.

- In a stomach ulcer with perforation think of Mercurius, like we see in ulcerative colitis with perforation.

- Do you know the rubric for tenesmus?

- " Rectum, pain, tenesmes" on page 630.

- This tenesmus, the never-get- done feeling, the diarrheas with slim and blood, and mostly at night, that is Mercurius.

- Tenesmus in dysentery and in diarrhoea, there is Arsenicum, Apis and other remedies, and Tabacum has to be added here.

- A: On April 18 I also found out that you had salivation at night.

- P: Yes.

- A: That was very clear.

- P: I still have it, but not so strong as before.

- A: And I asked you, if you had trembling hands and you said, " Yes, before I took LEXOTAN both of my hands were trembling.

- That was 15 years ago."

- P: Yes.

- The trembling started 15 years ago and he has suppressed it with LEXOTAN the whole time.

- Then slowly he developed hypertension, because the disease continues.

- A: Because of the LEXOTAN your hands didn't tremble so much.

- P: I CAN'T SAY; during our holiday in Spain I remarked that I couldn't draw a straight line when I want to draw my first plan.

- By coincidence I met a friend who advised me to take LEXOTAN.

- Then I tried LEXOTAN and it worked.

- A: 15 years ago your hands trembled already.

- P: Not trembling, they trembled when I wanted to draw a plan.

- I couldn't draw a straight line anymore.

- I was surprised that I couldn't draw a straight line even with a measure.

- You didn't notice it immediately in the hands.

- I saw it only once with someone.

- I had a colleague who couldn't sign anymore because of his trembling hands in my case, I only couldn't draw a straight line anymore.

- A: Very interesting.

- Then I gave you a remedy in 10 M potency and you came back two months later and you said that you reacted very well to the remedy, as well to this remedy as you did to the Nux vomica at that time.

- The hay fever was still minimal.

- And you said, "Previously, I had to sneeze when I went to the toilet at night.

- I don't have to any more."

- P: No, I don't have to any more.

- Now, I put on a kind of jacket.

- I didn't do it before,

- A: Yes, but you don't put it on under the covers.

- P: No.

- A: So, you pay attention to that, but before you were sneezing even before you put on the jacket.

- A few months ago he came back because of the hay fever and this time I gave him Mercurius, with a very good result.

- The reaction to Nux vomica before was also very well, but there is a difference.

- With two different remedies, the right and the wrong remedy, apparently you get the same effect, the symptoms disappear, but: the first time was suppression.

- A: You still have salivation at night.

- You said that you felt much better, mentally much better I don't know, whether you remember.

- P: Yes, that's right.

- A: The blood pressure was 140/85 mmhg, although you stopped all the medicines, except the LEXOTAN.

- You took between 12 and 18 milligrams and we agreed that you would reduce it slowly.

- So first half of it, 3 milligrams in the afternoon, 6 milligrams in the evening instead of the double quantity.

- How did it go?

- He stopped all the antihypertensive drugs and all the diuretics and the blood pressure was normal after Mercurius.

- He only takes LEXOTAN 6 milligrams three times a day.

- P: Sometimes I can hold it until the evening, but when I take only 6 milligrams in the evening, I can't sleep.

- Then I sleep only until a certain time.

- A: When do you wake up?

- P: About 1 o'clock.

- Previously, I slept in a very restless way.

- My wife lies in bed, falls asleep and lies completely still, but I turn constantly.

- Previously, she complained about it, she doesn't do it anymore.

- I have to turn about 20 times a night.

- I can't sleep when I take a sleeping tablet, but I do when I take LEXOTAN.

- And the strange thing is, when I take LEXOTAN, I can draw.

- When I am busy with a case and I take LEXOTAN then I can go on working.

- A: So you took 18 milligrams a day.

- P: yes, about that.

- It might do with 15 milligrams as well, or with 12.

- A: It depends on the stress.

- P: Yes.

- I don't take it when I don't have to.

- Previously, I didn't take anything before 4 o'clock either, but then I had to take something.

- And now I can even wait until the evening before I have to take something.

- A: You can wait longer.

- P: Yes.

- I have completely different life than before.

- A: Not so much stress anymore?

- P: No, I don't work in the coal mine anymore.

- A: But you are still drawing?

- P: Yes, I am still working.

- A: That was your history in short.

- I'm sure that you can do without LEXOTAN IN THE future.

- Try to reduce it bit by bit.

- What about your hay fever?

- P: Yes.

- Today I had it.

- When I got up it was all right, but there were some flowers on the table and then it flared up.

- S: Did it go away quickly?

- P: I took something for it.

- A: In general, compared to the period before you took the remedy, how is your hay fever now?

- P: Incredibly much better.

- Previously, before I came here the first time I didn't have a normal life.

- A: In 1988 it was much worse than it is now.

- P: Yes, yes.

- A: So, it seems that it is coming back, isn't it?

- Or do you have only complaints now and then?

- P: Yes, sporadically, maybe once a week.

- It is not so strong anymore.

- Now, I also know the cause, why I get it so strong.

- I didn't before.

- I got hay fever without any reason.

- You see, Mercurius works and after a certain period he also has to diminish LEXOTAN.

- You see this story with a wrong prescription and suppression is an important matter.

- You have to be careful, and that's the reason why you may not prescribe on local symptoms.

- It is better- it is possible to take the whole picture, also for hay fever.

- It might be dangerous to give Wyethia: the hay fever disappears, but what does the remedy do exactly? If you have clear and particular symptoms for a small remedy why shouldn't you give it?

- For small remedies we often don't have anything else but peculiarities.

- Often, there is no mental picture upon we can describe, therefore we have to prescribe on these particular symptoms.

- There is no other way.

- But we know the personality of Nux vomica and if you prescribe Nux vomica for a person who is not Nux vomica, I think you can do damage.

- Remark: "And by saying, 'I don't know if I am better, he underlines his Mercurius personality.

- He is not sure enough to be able to say that he is doing fine."

- A: Yes, that's right.

- Mercurius can only say something when he is really sure.

- He has to be sure, then he can say: It's like this.

- This patient is not completely sure and that's why he doesn't say it.

- Again this points to Mercurius.

CASE7

Heartburn, stomach complaints

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 60 years old

- What do we observe?

- He is dressed very well, everything matches concerning colours.

- One is dark blue, the other light blue and that is white. It is a very good combination.

- We can think about a remedy which is rather polite, which dresses traditionally.

- A: You were here on March 12.

- That is nine weeks ago.

- For how long do you have complaints?

- P: For had a feeling as if there was a ball in your stomach, especially when you ate raw vegetables, fruit and cake.

- Did you have complaints from other food?

- P: No.

- These were the main things.

- A: That feeling of a ball was accompanied by heartburn.

- You didn't have heartburn immediately after eating, but at night.

- About what time?

- P: At two, half past two, sometimes earlier.

- What is the most important symptom up to now?

- Heartburn at night.

- That is strange.

- Lat's look under "heartburn, night" on page 500: Coccus cacti, Kali bichromicum, Mercurius, Patella, Robinia.

- If you don't have any other symptom but "an intensive burning" it is Robinia.

- And with Ptelea the heartburn goes away with what?

- What do they have to eat or drink? Sour things.

- A little bit further below you see "heartburn, night, in pregnancy".

- There is only one remedy: Mercurius.

- A: The pain always appears after midnight; no mater when you go to sleep at 10 or at 11 o'clock.

- You wake up from it after midnight.

- These complaints already exist for 20 years.

- P: Yes, yes, surely for 20 years.

- A: What did you do?

- P: I took RENNIE, then it was gone.

- A: You didn't have to eat or to drink anything?

- P: No, no.

- I only took RENNIE and then it was gone after a quarter of an hour.

- A: How often in a week did you suffer from it?

- P: Three, four times, very often, depending on what I ate.

- A: If you paid attention to your food, it was rather good.

- P: I didn't suffer from it then.

- A: Not one week passed without suffering from it?

- P: No, no, I had it every week.

- A: For 20 years.

- It was also remarkable that you produced very much saliva.

- P: Yes, I always did, but since I have false teeth it was worse.

- A: And also a lot of salivation night.

- I'm talking about that time, not about now.

- P: Yes, it was worse after false teeth.

- A: You had a lot of salivation at night.

- P: Yes, so slobbering at night.

- If someone needs dentures there must be a reason for it.

- That is not normal.

- If you look at his enamels they don't need dentures.

- So don't believe what they say that you have to clean your teeth three times a day or that sugar is the reason for caries.

- The reason is our constitution.

- If you see someone with dentures this means something, indeed that there is a problem with their teeth and this indicates the constitutional remedy.

- Don't believe what is good for health.

- Until now we always thought that vitamins didn't have side effects, but in Germany they examined the results of a high quantity of Vitamin 6 and they found that a polyneuropathy can be caused.

- A: Put out your tongue.

- P: (Puts his tongue out)

- A: Yes, all right.

- The last time it was more coated than now.

- The tongue was trembling more, was thicker and much more coated.

- You can see swellings especially under the eyes.

- On page 393 you see all the rubrics with swellings above, under and around the eyes.

- In " swellings above the eyes" Kali carbonicum is the only capital remedy and everyone knows that this swelling is medial, near the nose, like little sacks.

- "Swellings around the eyes" is also Kali carbonicum, then Apis, Rhus toxicodendron and Ferrum.

- Don't forget Ferrum in pale people with swellings around the eyes.

- Which is the keynote for Ferrum?

- They are pale and flush easily, but that is not necessarily so.

- If pale people don't flush easily, it does not mean that they do not need Ferrum.

- Ferrum is an important remedy, also in septicemia.

- If a woman tells you that she had to take iron during the whole pregnancy and it does her good, normally she needs Ferrum.

- If someone gets iron, although he doesn't need it, usually they get bleeding s from abuse of iron.

- Swelling around the eyes is also Elaps, Elaps in diarrhoea, Crohn's disease, there is also MERCURIUS, Nitricum acidum, Phosphorus, and so on.

- The swelling around the eyes and under the eyes in one of the symptoms for hay fever.

- You can take this rubric.

- A: Avery long time ago you had inflammations of the teeth regularly.

- P: Yes, when I was in the military, the gums of the lower jaw were inflamed and swollen.

- The teeth were often loose and some feel out.

- A: The teeth which fell out, were these healthy teeth?

- P: Yes, they were healthy teeth.

- Because I had this inflammation of the gums in the lower jaw when I was in the military.

- Is there a rubric?

- "Teeth, looseness of sound teeth" on page 432.

- An addition is Calcarea fluorata.

- Here the problem is the gums, but remember that tooth problems normally are a syphilitic process.

- Therefore you often find Mercurius in tooth problems.

- P: I didn't do anything about it, and later I got ulcers in the upper jaw.

- I had all my teeth extracted a few years ago.

- A: How old are you now?

- P: 60 years old.

- It is so since I was 20 years old, it started immediately after the war.

- A: Always inflammations.

- Your wife told me, it always stunk.

- P: Yes, that was five years ago.

- The teeth were purulent on the inside and the gums were always bleeding, they bled by the slightest touch.

- And when I sucked on it.

- The aggravation by slight touch is a general modality of Mercurius, it does not only concern the pain.

- The slight touch with the tongue causes pain, the bleeding starts with the slightest touch and so on.

- A: So stinking breath.

- P: Yes.

- I haven't noticed it myself yet, but my wife told me.

- A: Is there blood in the saliva?

- P: No.

- A: Then, I asked you whether you perspire easily at night, and that was not so.

- P: I never perspire at night.

- A: Do you often have a certain taste in your mouth?

- P: No.

- A: You told me that you have disturbances of equilibrium in the winter for two years.

- What do you mean?

- P: The doctor told me.

- I don't know what it is in fact.

- A: What do you mean?

- P: Well, I became dizzy and I thought, I had high blood pressure.

- I had it once, but now I don't have it.

- And the doctor said that the disturbances of equilibrium would go away when the winter was gone.

- And they did.

- A: You also told me about the vertigo last time.

- Regularly, you had cracks in the corner of the mouth, so ripped open corners of the mouth.

- P: Yes.

- The cracks in the corner of the mouth is a very interesting symptom and which is the first remedy?

- Arum triphyllum.

- And in which disease do you see Arum triphyllum?

- Answer: "In Laryngitis."

- A: Yes, in which kind of Laryngitis.

- Let's see a short case of Laryngitis.

CASE8

- ACUTE LARYNGITIS

- Woman, 68 years old

- A: It concerns a cold.

- When did it start?

- P: The day before yesterday.

- In fact, on Monday.

- (Patient talks with a hoarse voice, the voice is cracking)

- A: Today it is Thursday.

- P: My husband had it very bad.

- A: How did it start?

- P: With an obstructed nose.

- Then it went to the vocal cords.

- I couldn't talk anymore.

- A: Completely hoarse?

- P: Yes, completely.

- I couldn't say anything, I had to write it down.

- A: So the voice was completely gone?

- P: Yes, completely.

- A: The voice is also changing.

- P: Yes, sometimes it is high, sometimes it is absent.

- A: Sometimes it is cracking.

- P: Yes, sometimes it is high...

- A: ... and then it is low again.

- P: Yes.

- A: You don't have any control over it.

- P: No, not at all.

- A: So, it is a cold.

- Also your nose is obstructed.

- On which side?

- P: On the right side.

- A: What is coming out/

- P: Liquid.

- A: Watery?

- P: Yes.

- A: Is the watery liquid burning?

- P: No.

- I wipe it immediately away.

- A: What do you feel inside the nose?

- P: At the moment nothing.

- I clean it with cotton that I have soaked in salty water.

- A: You have the tendency...

- P: ... to clean it every time in order to breathe better.

- A: That's the reason.

- Is your nose completely obstructed?

- P: Yes, completely obstructed.

- A: Is there blood with it?

- P: Not until now.

- A: Also not when you are cleaning your nose?

- P: No.

- A: Do you feel anything particular in the mouth?

- P: No, not at all.

- I don't feel anything in the throat.

- A: Do you have a lot of salivation?

- P: Often yes.

- And a dry mouth.

- I drink very much.

- A: Cold or warm?

- P: A little bit tepid.

- A: Do you have mucus the throat?

- P: A little bit, but not much.

- A: Do you often clear your throat?

- P: I do.

- A: Do you have the feeling that the throat is swollen?

- P: Yes, on the right side.

- A: Further you don't feel anything.

- P: Not at all.

- I don't feel it at all.

- A: I will give you a remedy and will see you tomorrow evening again.

- You dissolve the remedy in water and take four times a spoonful today and tomorrow again a few.

Feedback (1 day later)

- A: How did it go?

- P: Yesterday after breakfast, about 10 o'clock I started taking the remedy.

- I took five times a spoonful.

- I thought it was better this morning and it became better during the day.

- I could talk better.

- A: Indeed your voice had improved.

- P: Yes, I don't have problems with it anymore.

- The nose is only a little bit obstructed.

- I feel well.

- Only when talking...

- A: But the voice is not cracking anymore.

- P: No, it doesn't trouble me anymore.

- A: Before it went up high suddenly.

- P: Yes, I couldn't bring out the words.

- It was gone.

- A: All right, that is all I had to know.

- How do these Arum triphyllum cases usually start?

- With a running nose and the discharge is very acrid so that there is an excoriation of the nose, the upper lip, everything is sore.

- If you look under " face" you see the rubric "excoriated lips" on page 374: Arsenicum, Arum triphyllum and Lachesis as capital remedies.

- Arsenicum also has this burning, acrid excoriation together with an obstructed nose.

- Also the corners of the mouth are sore with an intense redness.

- If you see someone with and acute coryza and everything is red, also the upper lip, that is Arum triphyllum.

- Normally, they also have the laryngitis with the changeable voice because of the viral infection of the larynx.

- In this season (winter) we often have to prescribe Arum triphyllum.

- Last week we had an influenza epidemic with rainy weather, but it was not so cold which is the remedy?

- Bryonia.

- All right.

- With cracks in the corners of the mouth we have Arum triphyllum and other remedies, for example, Condurango.

- Condurango in which disease?

- In cancer, in breast cancer with cracks in the corners of the mouth, cracks in the rectum and pain under the left scapula, radiating to the right.

- The first remedies in breast cancer with deep cracks in the corners of the mouth you have to think of Condurango, Graphites, Silicea and Nitricum acidum.

- These are all remedies in breast tumors.

- A: I asked you what you liked to eat.

- You told me, "Everything, but I like butter very much."

- P: I like it very much, but I don't eat it.

- A: If you go to eat somewhere, do you eat butter?

- P: Yes, I like to eat butter very much, those little packets.

- A: Do you put butter very thick on your bread?

- P: Yes, yes.

- The way he is laughing you can see that he likes butter very much.

- A: About your character, here it says that you are a person who easily gets excited.

- P: Yes.

- But that is much better, since I am in treatment here.

- I noticed it myself that it is much better.

- A: Did the others also notice that it id better?

- P: Yes.

- They don't say " grumbler" anymore.

- A: You feel yourself that you are better by character since you were here.

- More quiet, less aggressive internally.

- P: Yes, I don't know, but I am completely different.

- A: Can you imagine how you were before?

- What do you mean when you say you are completely different?

- P: I can't explain.

- Previously, I thought, 'I want to go to bed, but I will get heartburn tonight, and now the feeling is much different.

- I go to bed quietly and think I won't have it tonight.

- A: In relationship to your surroundings how did you change?

- P: Well, in relationship to my surroundings-hmm.

- A: Because you say that internally you are not so aggressive anymore, less angry.

- P: Yes, previously when a grandchild stayed at our house and it went badly, immediately I burst out.

- Now, it is different.

- I don't go to work anymore.

- I'm retired.

- A: You also said that you would try to withdraw yourself.

- "I try to withdraw my choleric temperament."

- P: At that time, yes.

- But it is not always possible.

- A: Did you tremble sometimes?

- P: I don't know.

- A: When you were so angry?

- P: No, no, I didn't.

- A: And with a cup of coffee?

- P: No, I didn't.

- Also not while eating soup.

- A: It is remarkable the way you are dressed, it is very correct.

- P: Yes, I always have.

- My parents taught me so and it remained this way.

- A: What do you mean?

- P: Well, I like to be dressed nicely, it has to be right, decent, all the buttons closed and so on.

- A: Are you this way by character?

- P: Yes, I like everything right, in a row, decent, in a straight line.

- Also in my job.

- I can't leave everything just there, everything has to be put in its place.

- A: Are you this way as a person, you opinion?

- In relationship to the society.

- A: At home everything has to be right.

- P: When something has been replaced, I see it immediately.

- A: You have a conservative mind.

- I mean you don't have a free opinion?

- P: Well, according to me everybody can do what he wants, for me everything is all right.

- A: But often you become angry about the youth?

- P: Yes, yes, I do about the youth.

- A: What do you mean?

- P: Because, for example, they leave everything dirty around their houses, and they are dressed slovenly.

- I can tolerate this.

- I never saw it with my own children.

- But I couldn't tolerate it.

- He is angry for the least thing, everything has to be the way he wants it.

- That is the inflexibility of Mercurius.

- They don't express anger immediately and that is the bid difference with Nux vomica.

- Nux vomica also want s everything tidy and exact, but they express their anger immediately.

- Mercurius withdraws their anger, but at a moment where the control fails the anger comes up and they get certain impulses, dangerous syphilitic impulses.

- Syphilitic means killing, goes inside and kill, hollowed out, like the inflammation of the teeth.

- It goes inside, like the metastasis of the bones of Mercurius, by which the bone structure disappears, osteolytic metastasis.

- That is the reason they talk about the bone weakness of Mercurius.

- A: The children are obedient.

- You were rather severe.

- The children had to obey.

- P: Yes, of course, otherwise you don't know what will become of them.

- A: What about your feeling for injustice?

- Are you sensitive to it?

- P: Well, yes.

- I do care a little bit.

- I prefer justice.

- A: Do you get angry about it?

- P: Yes.

- I can get angry about it, when something is wrong.

- But no that I would hit somebody.

- No, I never will

- A: Can you get very angry sometimes?

- P: Yes, yes, I can.

- A: Tell me how angry have you been?

- P: So angry that I couldn't sleep for two or three nights, so angry.

- That is already years ago.

- That was before at work, because they had been unfair, so that you could become anger about it.

- A: Internally?

- P: No, also externally.

- That is very interesting when you analyze it.

- " I couldn't sleep three nights because I was so angry.

- " So, during the night he is thinking.

- " Delusions, night", there are only two remedies.

- They think and they cant sleep because of the anger.

- They lie in bed and they are angry and they suffer, but they can't get rid of it.

- A: You told me that you were anxious on going to bed, because you were anxious to get stomach problems.

- P: It is gone, but the last 14 day s it came back.

- A: A little bit again?

- P: Yes.

- And in the evening I'm thinking, "I don't get it again?

- A: You can't tolerate contradiction?

- P: No.

- A: When you say at home, "It has to be like that", then it has to be like that, you don't tolerate contradiction.

- P: No, I don't.

- A: Do you have certain thoughts at night?

- P: No.

- A: So, this being angry, get excited, does this call certain impulses to you?

- Could you...

- P: No, it's not like that.

- When I have said it it is all right again.

- I wouldn't hurt a person like that, no.

- A: You never did?

- P: No.

- I would rather run away.

- I won't do anything like that.

- A: Can you see a knife lying on the table?

- P: Yes.

- A: Or do you prefer that it is put away?

- P: If the knife is still lying there after a quarter of an hour, then I put it away.

- A: Do you think a knife is dangerous for children?

- P: Yes, surely it is dangerous.

- There are children in our village who say they are throwing knives.

- A: Are you impatient, does it have to go quickly or are you rather quiet?

- P: I'm rather quick.

- I try to start slowly, but it doesn't last long.

- A: Is your memory all right?

- P: Yes.

- As far as I know, yes.

- A: Are you a person who easily trusts people or who is careful?

- P: I trust them.

- He has it for 20 years, that is constitutional, because he already had it when he was 19 years old, when he was in the military, he got problems with his teeth and the other symptoms appeared afterwards.

- First, the complaints with the stomach, then slowly neurological symptoms, the vertigo in the winter.

- The more everything develops the deeper the symptoms are.

- You see, now he needs the some remedy as when he was 19 years old.

- A: What did you notice immediately after the remedy?

- P: I didn't notice anything, I just went to bed.

- I was all right for weeks.

- A: During these five weeks you didn't have to take RENNIE?

- P: No.

- I went on holiday to the sea.

- A: You ate everything, gravy and so on?

- P: I ate everything.

- A: And then you had a rather big relapse.

- P: I also drank a little bit in the evening.

- You know, how this goes.

- I couldn't sleep in the evening, I couldn't lie and I took a quarter of a RENNIE.

- A: The first five weeks when you were not on holiday, you were all right, although you ate cake?

- P: Yes, I ate cake.

- I tried to eat fruit only when we were on holidays.

- An apple and things like that.

- I couldn't eat this previously.

- A: Do you eat everything at the moment?

- P: Yes, I try to eat everything.

- A: And you tolerate it better than before.

- P: Yes, yes.

- I think it is better by 50% A: Now, lately.

- But before it was much better.

- P: Yes, but I didn't eat everything then.

- I only tried to eat everything afterwards.

- A: All right.

- For a few weeks you feel something again at night.

- P: It is not as bad as before, but I feel it and I can't fall asleep again, when I don't take anything.

- A: Previously, it was several times a week.

- How often does it happen now?

- P: It might be once a week.

- This week I had it twice.

- A: What about the salivation at night? P: It is completely gone.

- A: And you told me that in general you are much more quiet.

- P: Yes.

- Now, I can see things lying around, which I couldn't previously.

- So, I gave him Mercurius in March 1988 and I repeated it after this consultation, two months later.

- In August he got Sac-lac and in September I gave him Mercurius 10 M, and some time later he took it again.

- I repeated Mercurius a few times, because he always had these slight relapses and he was always better afterwards.

- The last four months I only gave him Sac- lac.

- He still had these sleight relapses by which he also recovered with Sac-lac.

- I think it is at least in this case more or less normal that the essential complaints disappear, but from time to time they tend to appear again, but disappear again by themselves.

- I don't know on what this depends, why in some moments the energy fails.

- Question: "Why did you repeat Mercurius, if the patient says that the is better by 50%?"

- A: I wanted to try it out.

- In general, It is so that you have to wait and I saw cases where I waited and waited and it became better and in other cases I repeated the remedy and it also became better.

- It is difficult to decide, whether you have to repeat or not.

- This patient comes form the beginning in regularly and so I could try out what a remedy would do if I gave it more often, and what would happen with Sac- lac, and indeed I didn't see a difference.

- He always has periods where he doesn't feel well, but he recovers by himself without repeating Mercurius.

- Later he also got dandruff and itching of the head.

- I thought that he might need Mezereum because it is complementary, but I waited and then the dandruff and the itching disappeared by itself.

- This means that Mercurius works very deeply, that it is still working and brings things like skiing problems to the surface, which can be cured with Sac- lac.

- There is no universal rule.

- If there is a relapse you have to repeat the remedy, but that is a relapse?

- Once a week he might have pain at night, depending on what he ate, it might happen after a rich, heavy supper.

- Is that a relapse?

- As long as he is doing well mentally and when he has less complaints than at the beginning, we just have to wait.

- Question: "..." (not understandable)

- A: If the remedy is right, there is no problem.

- If the remedy is wrong, it is a big problem.

- I don't think when you repeat the correct remedy, a positive, good energy too early, you can do damage.

- Remark: "..." (not understandable)

- A: Yes, I agree.

- If someone is better after an aggravation at the beginning and you repeat the remedy during this amelioration there will be an aggravation, but afterwards he will be better again.

- I hope you understand that you can't do damage with something good, with an energy that someone needs, but nevertheless you should not repeat the remedy if it is not necessary.

- I think it is better to wait until there is a clear relapse.

CASE9

Mercurius solubilis

- Boy, 7 years old

- He has the appearance of which remedy?

- Of Carcinosin, because of his dark hair, his dark eyes, his dark skin and I think he also has blue sclera but I can't see it so clearly, that's what Carcinosin looks like, I mean, where I had the experience that Carcinosin worked beautifully these people look like him.

- I would like to say something to those people who already have some experience.

- You give a remedy for shoulder pain or whatever symptom, for example, Calcarea, and the complaints disappear.

- After half a month the patient comes back and you say that you have to repeat the remedy because it was better and now it became worse again, You give him the remedy and the same happens again: first the amelioration and then the complaints appear again.

- You say that the potency was too low and you give a higher potency and the same happens again: a slight amelioration and then everything is the same.

- You give the remedy in a 50M potency, no reaction anymore.

- That's what you often see in practice.

- What does this mean?

- The remedy was wrong and you suppressed the symptom.

- You can do this until the remedy doesn't work anymore respectively the energy of the patient has the energy to bring the symptom to the surface and you say, "Oh, my remedy is not correct anymore, I have to find another remedy."

- You find another symptom, give the remedy and the patient is cured.

- Often you will conclude there is a relationship between the first and the second remedy, this means between the wrong and the right, they are complementary.

- First, the patient reacted well to Calcarea carbonica and then, for example, to Baryta carbonica, so this means, Calcarea carbonica and Baryta carbonica are complementary, but that is not right.

- In Homoeopathy the prescription should always be based on physical symptoms together with mental elements.

- If the whole picture is right it is a good prescription and the remedy will act for a long time.

- I had a patient with rumbling, a lot of flatulence, and a lack of self- confidence.

- He was tall and narrow, so a clear Lycopodium type.

- All right, I gave him Lycopodium and he did well for three weeks, after four weeks he came back and I repeated Lycopodium, Lycopodium twelve times a year.

- Is that normal?

- No, unless he lives in bad circumstances, but he has worked like everybody else, he has a wife and children, in fact there were no reasons for his relapses.

- I examined the case again and I saw that it was not Lycopodium at all, but another remedy that also has very little self confidence.

- I gave him the remedy and since then there are no problems anymore: Baryta carbonica.

- All the time you think that you know the remedy and you give it again and again and you suppress without seemingly much damage.

- After one, two years you realize that you gave the wrong remedy all the time.

- In these case nothing happened, but it can be dangerous in Bufo cases.

- A: You came with him on September 12, 1987 with the problem of aphthae in the mouth.

- This was accompanied with a lot of salivation.

- MP: Yes.

- A: He also had a headache and stomach pain and he felt ill.

- At the moments when he had these aphthae he perspired very much, didn't he?

- At night there was also salivation from the mouth.

- Bad odor and a strongly coated tongue.

- MP: Yes.

- Which remedy do we see with aphthae especially in children?

- Borax.

- These children have fear of downward movements, this means they cry when you put them down or they are anxious with downward movements while swinging, also while riding downhill or in a chair- lift.

- Don't forget that Borax is also an important remedy in psoriasis.

- And which remedy has aphthae especially in old people?

- With very old people, 70 years and older who worked very hard their whole life?

- Our father and grandfather - nowadays the people don't work so hard anymore as before.

- In these people you notice the blue ecchymosis on the hands.

- Everybody has seen this blue ecchymosis on hands of your father or grandfather.

- And often they have aphthae.

- you think it is because of their dentures.

- Slowly, they become weak and they have to lie down more often because they are so tired.

- Which is the remedy?

- Sulphuricum acidum.

- That is a very important remedy.

- It concerns people who always worked very hard, they can't take a break, they always have to go on.

- Many people think that Sulphuricum acidum is only a remedy for woman with menopausal complaints, with flushes of heat, with hurriedness and the wish to lie down.

- That's not right.

- Sulphuricum acidum will mainly act in old people, in old burned out people who tend to work too quickly.

- It is a remedy for the end stage of life, before they go to Arsenicum, Carbo vegetables or Opium states.

- It also occurs in children, very hot tempered children, who want their mild immediately.

- Which remedy in children is often complementary to Sulphuricum acidum?

- Pulsatilla.

- If the aphthae appear after Pulsatilla, usually it is Sulphuricum acidum.

- We often forget the blue ecchymosis of Sulphuricum acidum.

- It is a very important symptom.

- I think it was Borland who wrote that the remedy for old people with ecchymosis is Sarsaparilla.

- I haven't seen it yet up to now.

- Sulphuricum acidum is also an important remedy in gangrene of the extremities, but it is not in the Repertory.

- It is very important to add it.

- If these old people kick with their toe against something and it becomes blue, of which remedy do you think?

- Of Secale.

- This is also Vipera, but Sulphuricum acidum is not in the rubric.

- It is a very important remedy and has to be added.

- In Sulphuricum acidum there is another peculiarity concerning their drinking.

- What do they drink?

- Water with alcohol.

- If they drink pure water they get stomach complaints and cold feeling in the stomach, like Elaps.

- And it is better when they put some alcohol, brandy or something like that in the water.

- Another remedy with a lot of weakness and painful haemorrhoids is Muriaticum acidum.

- Who has these haemorrhoids?

- Children.

- We have often seen this another important remedy in aphthae in the mouth is Baptisia, but in a picture of complete intoxication, in very serious, dangerous situations.

- In aphthae of the gums Natrum muriaticum is the most important remedy.

- If someone has aphthae of the gums first you ask for Natrum muriaticum.

- Sulphuricum acidum has it also, but Natrum muriaticum is capital.

- Sepia and Natrum muriaticum both have the herpes of the lips in every fever and every grief they will get this herpes; Natrum muriaticum also has the aphthae of the gums.

- Sepia does not have this it is important for the differential diagnosis between Sepia and Natrum muriaticum which are complementary to each other.

- An important addition in aphthae of the gums is Medorrhinum.

- If you have a homosexual patient with Lycopodium symptoms like herpes of the right nates or on the gums and on the right side in the mouth it is Medorrhinum.

- Right side symptoms in a homosexual person are Medorrhinum, not Lycopodium.

- Medorrhinum works on the right side, while Tuberculinum rather works on the left side.

- A: For how long does he complain about it?

- MP: Already for a few years.

- Surely, for five or six years.

- A: And how did you treat it?

- MP: With all kinds of medicines, with CHLORIHEXIDIN or HEXTRIL rinse, ISOBETADINE, all kinds of sucking tablets, PYRALVESX.

- I think I tried everything which is available on the the market.

- At last imudon.

- A: And where has he been treated?

- MP: First by the the family doctor, then by the pediatrician and finally here.

- A: You haven't been in Leuven?

- MP: No.

- A: I gave you a remedy on September 12, in M potency.

- Further, I gave you Foliata squalosa.

- Tell me, how did the the treatment go compared to before.

- MP: The last two months he almost didn't have aphthae and if he had some he only complained for one day and then they were gone.

- It isn't completely cured, but he has less pain.

- A: Does he still perspire?

- MP: Yes, still and there is also still some salivation.

- A: A little salivation and perspiration.

- Is he still ill?

- A headache, abdominal pain or things like that?

- P: No.

- MP: This week he had a headache once, but he didn't have aphthae.

- A: He almost got rid of ht aphthae.

- What percentage has it improved?

- MP: 80%.

- A: You told me that he gets eczema now.

- What is it?

- MP: A skin eruption.

- A: It is very important that you don't treat the skin eruption with ointment.

- MP: No.

- I didn't put anything it.

- Only when too much moisture is coming out, then I put a dry cloth on it so that he doesn't scratch it too much.

- That is the only thing I did.

- But at the moment it is rather good.

- A: Where is the eczema?

- MP: Show the doctor.

- You have to show your thigh.

- At the moment it is very good, but when it started he suffered very much from it.

- Here it is gone.

- It started like that, but there was more.

- A: Aha, with vesicles.

- MP: Yes.

- You see, here he has scars.

- These were big spots which were completely wet.

- A: So, vesicular.

- MP: They itched very much.

- He always scratched them open.

- Now, they are nearly gone.

- It was not an eczema, they were little vesicles.

- Of which disease do you think in aphthae in the mouth and vesicles on the skin?

- Of pemphigus.

- In the Repertory on page 1315 Lachesis is the most important remedy, it can be, but Mercurius is also very important.

- There are many remedies in this rubric, also Crotalus horridus in cases with bleeding, bleeding which doesn't stop, bleeding from orifices, from the ears, the nose, form the ears, the nose, from everywhere.

CASE10

Ulcers of the oesophagus

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 57 years old

- This is a patient with ulceration of the oesophagus.

- His subjective complaint was a feeling as if something would close up in the breast suddenly while eating.

- Where can we find this?

- Answer: "Cramps." Answer: "Constriction."

- A: Yes, constriction, but where?

- He say it is in the breast, but when it happens while eating, it is where?

- In the oesophagus and you will find this under throat.

- " Throat, choking, oesophagus." On page 449: Cactus, Ignatia, Kali carbonicum, Mercurius corrosives (as capital remedy).

- There is Mercurius corrosives., but the difference between Mercurius solubilis, Mercurius vivus and so on, in fact you can forget about it.

- In a situation where everything is very corroding, very acrid, very persistent you could think of Mercurius sorrosivus, but essentially we don't see any differences between the different Mercurius' in practice.

- In a right sided inflammation of the throat it might be which Mercurius?

- Mercurius iodatus flavus.

- If it is on the left side Mercurius iodatus rubrum.

- I don't use these remedies myself, I only give Mercurius, with good result.

- But now, let us listen to the story of the man.

- A: You were here the first time on November 10, 1988.

- Now, it is June 1, 1989.

- Your problem was for a long time...

- Tell it your self.

- P: When I want to eat the food didn't go down.

- First I had to vomit before I could go on eating.

- That's how it was a few times and then it didn't work anymore and I had to stop eating.

- A: The oesophagus was contracting?

- P: Yes, the reason was inflammation of the oesophagus.

- The oesophagus was contracting and the food didn't go down to the stomach.

- A: For how long did you suffer from it?

- P: I think for about 1-1/2 years.

- WP: Longer.

- MP: Already for two years.

- A: When did the complaints with the oesophagus start?

- WP: In February when we were on holiday.

- We both ordered fish and were eating.

- My husband had to get up because he had a fish bone in his throat.

- Afterwards he could go on eating a little bit, but he couldn't eat everything.

- Two, three days later there was fish again.

- Then he couldn't eat.

- Of course, we thought it was a fish bone again.

- It was not so, because later in the evening it happened again when he wanted to drink water.

- Our mother said, " You better see a doctor instead of laughing about it."

- A: It was in which year?

- WP: According to me it was in February two years ago.

- A: So in 1986?

- WP: Yes.

- A: Did you have it examined?

- P: It was inflammation of the oesophagus.

- A: They did an endoscopy of the oesophagus and diagnosed inflammation?

- P: Yes.

- A: You don't have other complaints?

- P: No.

- A: It was remarkable...

- How old are you now?

- P: 57.

- A: It is not so remarkable now.

- But at that time your voice was trembling more.

- According to your wife you were not perspiring at night, but you had salivation.

- P: Yes.

- Now, it is over.

- A: You could see it on the pillow.

- P: Yes.

- A: I asked you about your food and you used the expression, that you put bread on your butter instead of butter on your bread.

- P: Yes, very thick.

- A: So, you put real butter in slices on your bread?

- WP: Yes, but he is not allowed to do it anymore.

- He may not eat fat or drink alcohol anymore.

- A: What kind of treatment did you have?

- P: ZANTAC.

- WP: And GAVISCON.

- A: Nevertheless, you still had the problem?

- P: Yes, now and then I still have it.

- WP: Not constantly, but it is still there.

- A: Notwithstanding the ZANTAC?

- P: Yes.

- It was better after half a year.

- WP: The first two times it didn't improve.

- Before we came here, it was not better.

- A: Did they do an endoscopy of the oesophagus?

- WP: Yes, every time.

- P: Last time it was better.

- A: Before you were here?

- P: Yes.

- WP: No, it was only afterwards.

- Before it was not better.

- A: So we can conclude that you have been treated for 1 1/2 years with ZANTAC and GAVISCON without any improvement.

- P: Yes.

- It always came back.

- I had to go on taking ZANTAC.

- WP: According to me it is no solution to take all these medicines.

- A: It concerned chronic inflammation.

- That was the situation at that time.

- I asked you about your character.

- You worked at the electric company, you collect the money of people who don't pay.

- P. Yes.

- A: It seems as if you are a very quiet person.

- P: Yes.

- A: Someone, who doesn't get excited.

- WP: I wondered myself a few times whether he really doesn't get excited.

- I think he gets excited about his job.

- In fact, he does everything fills out tax forms for six or seven people of the family.

- I can imagine that he wonders, " Yes, how should I do this?"

- I don't know whether this is so.

- He also does everything for his football.

- A: Can he express himself?

- WP: No.

- Maybe at the football game, but never at home.

- For example, when I bought something wrong he should say, " Now, you shouldn't by it anymore.

- A: But he doesn't?

- WP: No, he just doesn't.

- He is exactly the same personas the notary assistant, a kind o f" workaholic" in the sense that the does many different things.

- For example, he helps other people with

- their taxes, he is involved in a football club and of course he has his job.

- Towards his wife he is not open, he doesn't speak about his feelings.

- It is the same as with the other man, very closed and a very hard worker.

- But the big difference is that for this man apparently everything is all right, he doesn't get annoyed.

- A: And internally he doesn't also?

- P; I can become angry, but not for a long time.

- Also when I go to people who don't want to pay, I say, O.K. " but there is no need to become angry.

- A: You don't become angry?

- A: No, the next thing they do is to cut off the electricity.

- There is no need to become angry and to argue with the people.

- A: He doesn't?

- WP: No.

- He can't.

- A: And if you don't agree with something?

- P: Then I discuss.

- A: Then you discuss?

- P: I say, "It has to be so and d so", that's all.

- A: That's all?

- WP: Yes, as I say, he says his opinion and when he doesn't agree it is all right.

- That's the way he is.

- A: But the fact that you have a chronic oesophagitis means that you withdraw yourself.

- There is no other explanation.

- WP; In fact, yes.

- Seemingly, he doesn't notice that he withholds his feelings the whole time.

- He is the way he is and that is his constitution.

- He doesn't notice it.

- He doesn't need a reason for his oesophagitis.

- Probably, the other would need problems at work to get pain in the legs, but he has the oesophagitis without any reason, just like this, because he is the way he is.

- This means, he withholds his feelings without realizing it.

- It is very peculiar when someone says, " that is constitutional.

- If you see something like that and find a remedy which corresponds to that, then you have a very deep acting remedy.

- Here it is difficult.

- Often you have to give a remedy upon one or two small symptoms.

- He has a few clear symptoms: the salivation, the trembling voice and he eats butter with bread instead of bread with butter.

- These are the three essential points on which I rely and how I found Mercurius.

- In this man you do not find the anger because he doesn't notice it at all, and that is constitutional.

- For example, when Baryta carbonica is sitting there with open mouth, and he doesn't realize that he doesn't understand or when Phosphorus wants to have sex five times a day and he doesn't realize that it is a little bit too much.

- Even when they have pain in the back they want to have sex and that is good for their back pain.

- Do you know why?

- Because of the rubbing.

- When they have something deep inborn, constitutional, he doesn't realize that maybe it is an excess.

- A: At a certain level, maybe in your profession you learned to withhold yourself.

- P: I don't have to.

- Sometimes there are telephone calls to say that I was rude.

- It can be me.

- That's what they also say at home.

- All my friends confirm this.

- A: What do you think about modern opinions?

- WP: He doesn't mind.

- He can accept them better than I do.

- A: Does he easily accept changes?

- WP: Yes.

- A: He is not a conservative person?

- WP: No.

- A: But he is in his way of dressing, isn't he?

- WP: No, he doesn't wear modern clothes, he has rather a classical taste.

- Question: " Doesn't he have silly laughing?"

- A: Yes, that's a good observation, it is a kind of silly laughing.

- In the rubric " mind, laughing, silly' on page62,

MIND,LAUGHING,silly : Bell., cic., crot-c., ether., Hyos., lach., lyc., merc., stram., stry.

Hyoscyamus is capital, but Hyoscyamus is very loquacious and very jealous, like Lachesis.

- Besides, I think that he doesn't really understand me.

- His wife corrects everything.

- He answers in a way, so that you may think, " My God, he is not to the point."

- A: And you don't realize that you withhold yourself?

- P: (shakes his head)

- WP: But he does while playing football.

- P: No, I just say, "You have to do so and so", and then it is over.

- WP: When I go with him to a football game, the same happens to me, that's way I don't go with him.

- P: When they are playing badly they make comments and that's it.

- A: You are a soft person who doesn't fight, or nearly doesn't.

- How do you react to injustice?

- P: I can't tolerate it.

- A: How do you react to it?

- P: How shall I say?

- If it is not my concern, I don't mix in.

- A: You don't take it to heart?

- P: No.

A: Is he a person who likes compromises, or is everything black and white?

- WP: Black and white, I think.

- A: What do you mean?

- P: If there is something wrong, it is so, there is nothing in between- that's what you mean?

- A: Yes.

- Give me and example.

- WP: How should I say.

- I can't.

- You see, he doesn't Say anything at all.

- His wife tells everything.

- A: He doesn't like compromises?

- When He has an opinion he doesn't say, it might be this way or that way?

- WP: No.

- If it is so, then it is so.

- A: On that level he is straight?

- WP: Yes.

- A: He is not flexible, not yielding?

- He works at the electric company and has to go to the people who don't pay.

- He asks them why they didn't pay and he gets the money.

- He doesn't try to go the people and to find compromises.

- He is correct and severe.

- WP: How shall I say?

- You are flexible, because you often give in.

- A: Anyway, someone whom you don't easily know.

- WP: Yes.

- A: Have you ever been really angry in your life?

- P: YES, but not often.

- A: How do you see your work?

- P: How I imagine it?

- A: At what time do you start working?

- P: There s no fixed hour.

- From 8 to 9 o'clock I do paper work, at 9 o'clock I go to the bank, then I drive until 12 o'clock noon.

- At 12 o'clock -lunch; a quarter to one I'm gone.

- A: It is the same every day.

- P: Yes.

- A: There is no inspector?

- P: No.

- A: You hold yourself to your day schedule?

- P: I get the lists from H. and I gets computer lists a few days before and then he can divide them himself.

- A: Did you ever hear him talking about his colleagues who want to take advantage?

- WP: Never.

- P: Never.

- A: You don't talk about it.

- P: I don't know anyone who takes advantage.

- I hardly see my colleagues.

- I work alone.

- A: What do you think about them?

- P: Everybody does what he wants.

- Everybody divides his own work.

- Previously, we made contact.

- We also divided the work.

- We made an agreement with the people when we would come; then we also had a free afternoon.

- A: It was a burning pain which started suddenly in the oesophagus.

- You got the remedy on November 10.

- I gave you Foliata squalosa on December 30 and February 22, 1989.

- You went for a check up to the specialist in February.

- WP: Two days before we came here.

- A: So on February 20 1989.

- You stopped ZANTAC.

- WP: It was better.

- The last report was better.

- WP: It was not gone, but clearly better.

- P: But I took your tablet.

- WP: Twice.

- A: And stopped ZANTAC.

- Previously, I didn't improve, not withstanding ZANTAC.

- What about your subjective pain?

- P: Now and then it still occurs.

- A: Did you still have it?

- P: Yesterday, while eating, for example, I felt it.

- WP: Then he can't eat very well.

- A: Compared to before, how much is it better?

- P: Now, I don't feel anything for 14 days, three weeks.

- Maybe it is because I eat too much, but I don't know exactly.

- A: And the burning pain?

- P: I don't have it anymore.

- A: And the frequency of not being able to swallow?

- P: It is better.

- I can't eat quickly.

- I have to remember to eat slowly.

- A: But the contraction of the oesophagus, how is it compared to before the treatment here?

- P: It is much better.

- A: And the salivation from the mouth?

- P: It is over.

- I see on the pillow.

- WP: It was already gone after the first tablet.

- On November10, 1988 he got Mercurius 10 M and then three times Sac- lac.

- What is the problem in this case?

- Is this a problem of the mucosa or what kind of problem?

- It is a nerve problem.

- There is no coordination of the peristalsis.

- The nerves are one of the most important targets of Mercurius.

- Mercurius is a remedy for Parkinson's, for incoordination like Multiple sclerosis.

- It develops very slowly and gets better slowly.

- The amelioration needs a long time.

- You may not be in a hurry in Mercurius states.

- Question: " The workaholism is an essential symptom of Mercurius, but what is behind this?

- What make them work so hard?"

- A: I think because Mercurius is a syphilitic constitution, who goes on, always goes on in the direction they started.

- I mean he does something and there are no limits.

- In Mercurius, in such syphilitic situations there are no limits.

- The ulcers perforates, the colitis ulcerosa perforates, the aphthae go very deep.

- I think that is the ideas of Mercurius, it can't stop, it goes on.

- Question "..." (question whether Merucrius can be added in the rubric 'industrious')

- A: ...(the beginning got lost because of changing of the cassettes) he (not Mercurius) writes and talks at the sometime, here is the telephone, there something else, here he has the map of his house, there the bill of his secretary.

- He does all these things at the same time.

- This is not so with Mercurius.

- When Mercurius play football he does it right, at home he does his insurances or what else.

- Tarentula works in the control room of the aeroplane and they are busy.

- Or when you see Bryonia: they always have to work, constantly.

- They even think constantly of work and even dream about it.

- I don't think that Mercurius is really so busy.

- They can easily sit down and go on eating quietly without getting nervous.

- To me being busy means, for example, to do several things at the same time, like Nux vomica does.

- So, don't feel better at night, as we see in Argentum Metallicum, Lycopodium and Medorrhinum, but once they start with something they have to finish it, even when they have to work until midnight.

- Aurum also does this, Aurum is also a syphilitic remedy which destroys himself by constantly working, day and night.

- The differential diagnosis between Aurum and Mercurius is often not easy, and for me they are both complementary.

- It is also typical for Mercurius that they can't stop thinking when they have problems.

- They think the whole night and then they get delusions; the process goes on.

- In these people you mostly find that they can't stop.

- They go on in a direction and that is not the case in Kali carbonicum.

- Kali carbonicum is more balanced towards his family, the church, his work, the wife, the children and so on.

- Remark: "I also thought of Baryta carbonica, because I had the feeling he has a lack of sensibility, that he very slowly...(not understandable) And Baryta carbonica also has salivation during sleep."

- A: But no the choking of the oesophagus.

- Or is it there?

- Answer: " No, but in 'spasm, oesophagus'"

- A: That is a very good idea, because he lets his wife answer instead of saying something himself.

- And he is always looking to his wife.

- Remark: "He has also a lack of memory concerning the past.

- If you asked him something about the recent past, he could answer very quickly, and if you asked him about things which happened a long time ago he could only answer slowly, he couldn't remember it anymore and his wife had to answer.

- Besides he had a stupid expression on his face and I don't think that he withholds or hides his feelings, I think he has no feelings.

- That's the impression he gives me."

- A: All right, but what is lacking to be Baryta carbonica?

- What is the essence of Baryta carbonica, what has to be there?

- Answer: "Insecurity."

- A: Yes, insecurity, the dependence on someone, the lack of self confidence.

- That is the essence of Baryta carbonica and that's the difference.

- He collects money from people and he is the president of a football club.

- You really have the feeling that he has a bad memory, that his mental capacities are limited, but do you have the feeling that he is anxious?

- No, certainly not.

- It is a very good differential diagnosis and I also thought of giving him Baryta carbonica, but I was too lazy.

- I thought, if nobody thinks about it, I leave it.

- Remark: " There is another rubric which maybe points to Baryta carbonica.

- We just said that it would be better to take the rubric 'smiling foolish' instead of 'laughing silly'."

- A: Yes, all right, if you prefer to take this rubric, you can do it, but don't stick to it, because it is a subjective idea and we must take the objective things.

- The symptoms are the salivation, he tremulous voice, the desire for butter and so on.

- How does it go to Baryta carbonica compared to Mercurius concerning the temperature?

- What are they sensitive for?

- For cold.

- Baryta carbonica is more chilly than Mercurius.

- With warm blooded people you can almost always forget Baryta carbonica.

- That is a very important differential diagnostic point.

- But there is a place where Baryta carbonica can't tolerate warmth and that is the head.

- Here Arsenicum appears as differential diagnosis: warmth in the head, they need fresh air in the head and the body has to be warm, Arsenicum and Baryta carbonica.

- In Baryta carbonica we nearly have the same anxieties as in Arsenicum, anxiety about trifles, anxiety about others, we find this in Arsenicum as well as in Baryta carbonica.

- Also prying, begging, being dependent, the people who come by every second day or call, also again Arsenicum and Baryta carbonica.

- You see, the differential diagnosis can be difficult.

CASE11

Aphthae

Mercurius solubilis

- Woman, 37 years old

- P: I had a small aphthae in the mouth and it became bigger and bigger.

- A: Where?

- P: In the mouth.

- I saw every doctor in Limburg to help me.

- I tried everything, alternative medicines, massage, but nothing helped.

- Then I thought to myself, I want to try I Hechtel.

- I never met anyone before who had the same problem.

- Aphthae, yes, but not so bad.

- Then I met someone who had the same problem and who was in treatment here.

- That's why I came here.

- I already telephoned you last year and finally I got an appointment.

- A: You have aphthae in the mouth?

- P: Probably, I had some in the throat.

- I thought it was the tonsils.

- Last year it was very bad, with fever and so on.

- First, I thought it was something else.

- I saw another doctor and he took a smear to see whether it was cancer.

- Maybe it was also aphthae.

- He said when I was cured to let him know.

- After a while it went away by itself.

- I already tried everything, diet, vitamins and so on.

- I also went to the dentist.

- He said he would go to a symposium of dentists where they would discuss herpetic problems, and when he came back he would call me.

- But then he couldn't help me.

- He brought special toothpaste which I tried.

- It helps a little bit, but it doesn't cure.

- A: How often do you have this?

- P: In fact, I always have it.

- A: Always?

- P: Yes, always.

- I must say, last year I worked very hard and then I had it constantly.

- A few months ago I didn't suffer from it, that was very peculiar.

- My brother was killed in an accident and I didn't have Aphthae for two months.

- It was as if the symptoms had been replaced had very much grief.

- I thought, it is the stress.

- I said to my colleague, " Now, I don't have Aphthae anymore, I think my brother took them with him to his grave.

- That is strange."

- Then the Aphthae came back and I don't get rid of them anymore.

- A: When did you get it the first time?

- P: When I was 18 years old.

- I think it has something to do with my teeth.

- I had dentures at a very young age.

- The dentist extracted all my teeth.

- That happened before.

- A: Did something particular happen?

- P: No.

- By nature I am very nervous.

- My mother is always laughing about that.

- I withheld myself, but I always had to find balance, I still have to.

- But I don't always succeed in that.

- I am always busy so that relaxation is not relaxation, because I always think I have to this, and I have to do that.

- I tried everything, I even had a cleaning woman, but it didn't help.

- During the holidays it is even worse.

- First, I thought it is because of the stress but when I am relaxed, I also have these aphthae.

- If I didn't have the Aphthae I could turn the world upside down.

- But when I have these Aphthae it make me so sad, that I get fever from it.

- Once when I drove home from I had to stand still, because I was perspiring so much.

- It is strange, up to now we only saw people who are relatively quiet, but she isn't.

- You could think she would be Lachesis, because she is talking uninterruptedly.

- A: You are a teacher?

- P: Yes.

- It is unbelievable.

- It started with a vesicle, before the menstruation.

- Most women have a vesicle before the menstruation.

- That's how it started.

- And then it disappeared again.

- A: Are the aphthae always in the mouth or do you also have vesicles on the lips?

- P; It is always in the mouth.

- Only once it was on the lips and it lasted quite a long time until it was cured.

- I think it was last year.

- A: Why did you get this the first time when you were 18 years old?

- P: I wondered my self.

- I think it had something to do with hormones.

- A: But you had your menstruation already when you were 14 years old.

- P: Yes, that's right.

- A: You didn't have a misfortune at the age of 18?

- P: No.

- I went to X.

- I have been very busy my whole life.

- But what does it mean, to be busy?

- Other people can be busy a swell.

- A: When you were 18 years old you went to the school for teachers the first time?

- P: Yes.

- And it was very difficult for me.

- At home we had quite a lot of work.

- We had a very exhausting family.

- Our grandmother was living with us, we had to take care of her.

- Now, there is a kind of organized help, but previously we had to help very much at home.

- We had six children.

- I like to work, but I never thought that it would be like this.

- It is difficult for me to relax.

- I withhold myself.

- I married a sports man.

- He can go away and leave everything untidy at home.

- I can't.

- I become angry when he leaves the car unwashed and when we have to sit in the car with our nice clothes, I can't tolerate that, but he can.

- Again the same, " I get angry about that."

- Again this way of...

- A: What about your appetite?

- P: I can eat very well.

- A: What do you prefer?

- P: I drink too much coffee.

- And previously, I baked very much.

- A: No, I asked you, " What do you like to eat?"

- P: About my appetite?

- I can't say, " I have appetite for this, no.'

- I like to eat cake very much, but I don't overdo it.

- That was my relaxation.

- I can clean the whole house at onetime and after the cleaning I can sit down to have a cup o coffee or tea with a piece of cake.

- Then I think, " Is this my relaxation?"

- When I had a day off I bake and I thought, " In a minute I can drink a cup of coffee with a piece of cake," And that was my relaxation.

- That is nice, isn't it?

- Or to pick up the children from school by bicycle.

- A: Besides cake, do you like something else?

- P: Yes, in the evening a glass of port, it cheers me up.

- I like wine very much.

- But concerning the food....

- A: You like wine very much?

- P: Yes, alcohol deadens my aphthae.

- When it is very bad I drink a glass of port or wine in the evening.

- My preference?

- Meat, but I don't overdo that.

- I also like uncooked food, but I eat too little of it.

- I know.

- A: But what do you like to eat?

- P: In fact, I like everything.

- Also fish.

- A: You like to eat fish?

- P: Yes, very much.

- A: Is there something which you don't like?

- P: Yes, mussels.

- I don't like them at all.

- Last time I ate 5 mussels.

- I try it again and again, because there are so many people who like to eat mussels.

- A: And no oysters?

- P: No, also not.

- That is the only thing which I don't like.

- Then I have to vomit.

- A: In general, you like sweets?

- P: Yes, and previously even more.

- My mother always cooked in a very sweet way.

- How is it possible, the others are so healthy and I do so much for my health and I feel worse and worse.

- I try to reduce the sugar.

- A: But you like it very much?

- P: Yes, very, very much.

- I like sweets very much.

- A: Do you also like fat?

- Fat of the meat and so?

- P: No, I rather prefer leant.

- Fried bacon, yes, but the fat has to be out of the bacon.

- A: Highly seasoned?

- P: Yes, but not too highly seasoned.

- Maybe, it is because of the aphthae.

- My son likes tomato soup very much, but when I eat tomato soup I have very much pain.

- At home I eat everything on the table.

- The tears run down my face, but I eat it.

- I have to eat.

- I have become hardened because of the pain I can tolerate quite a lot of pain.

- A: On which side do you sleep?

- P: On the right side.

- A: Why don't you sleep on the left side?

- P: I think that I lie on this side since the pregnancies.

- A: Can you tolerate tight clothes?

- P: No.

- Of which remedy do we think here?

- Answer: " Of Phosphorus, because she is so open, because... (not understandable), the complaints are on the right side."

- A: Yes, and aggravation from highly seasoned food.

- Another proposition?

- She is a teacher, doesn't tolerate tight clothes and sleeps on the right side: Lycopodium.

- A: What about your abdomen?

- Is there something particular?

- P: When I'm nervous I have abdominal pain

- A: Do you have pain in the abdomen or is it something else?

- P: Tension.

- I don't have pain in the abdomen, but there are tensions.

- A: How do these tensions feel?

- Is this pain or what?

- P: It is a kind of tickling in my abdomen.

- I had very much tension last time, previously I only started perspiring when I was tense.

- But recently I have it very often, I feel bad so I have to take a shower.

- I think, it is because of the aphthae.

- A: Do you suffer very much from rumbling, flatulence?

- P: Yes, I do.

- When I am nervous.

- A: At what time of the day do have more complaints?

- P: In the evening, at 9, 10 o'clock.

- A: At 9 o'clock?

- P: Yes, we eat our warm meal in the evening.

- In fact, it is not so healthy, but we do.

- A: When do you feel best in general?

- P: Abut noon.

- A: And in the afternoon?

- P: I also feel good at 4 o'clock, but at 6 o'clock I'm knocked out.

- A: Can you stay up late?

- P: No.

- A: If you stay up late...

- P: Yes, it happens sometimes, I don't want it, but...

- A: For example, when it is after midnight?

- P: I can't, and then I'm really tired.

- A: You don't wake up more the later it is?

- P: No, oh no.

- I don't stay up so late.

- But it happens sometimes.

- The whole time I'm asking for which remedy?

- For Lycopodium.

- But after midnight she is not better and there Lycopodium is capital.

- But let's turn our car and go into another direction.

- A: Put out your tongue.

- Do you have salivation at night?

- P: Yes, when I have these aphthae.

- A: Do you perspire at night?

- P: Yes lately more than previously.

- A: The whole night?

- Cold perspiration?

- P: Yes, not really wet...

- A: Clammy perspiration?

- P: No.

- In fact I don't perspire anymore.

- A: Not at night?

- P: No.

- In the face or so, no.

- A: Put out your tongue properly so that I can take it on video... indented tongue, swollen tongue,.. and you always have a bad odour...

- Look at the face, you see the reflection of the light.

- So she has a greasy face.

- Besides, the tongue is full of furrows, is coated and at the side there are only impressions.

- P: In fact not.

- Maybe, because I didn't eat anything this morning.

- After eating I don't have it anymore.

- A: But I smell something like that.

- P: Yes, but otherwise I don't have it.

- Maybe it is also because of my stomach.

- Now and then I feel something in my stomach.

- It might be tension.

- Lately, I suffer much more with it.

- Previously, I could tolerate much more, I don't anymore for the moment.

- Previously, I ate everything, cabbages and things like that.

- For example, I don't tolerate the fat of baked waffles so well.

- I think that I avoid certain food, because I don't tolerate it so well anymore, for example, uncooked food.

- It is healthy, but it is so hard.

- At ht end you start eating wrongly, because you want to mix everything, so that I can eat it.

- A: Do you sleep with a towel on your pillow?

- P: No.

- A: Do you really have a lot of salivation?

- P: No.

- There are only spots on the pillow when I have a lot of aphthae.

- A: Do you like butter?

- P: Yes, I like it, but I don't eat it.

- A: And cheese?

- P: Yes.

- A: Are you a conservative person?

- P: Yes.

- A: Are you a conservative person?

- P: No.

- A: Is punctuality important to you?

- P: In appointments yes, but that's a kind of occupational disability.

- A: Are you rather traditional?

- P: Not so anymore...

- A: Not so anymore?

- Previously, you were?

- P: Yes, originally.

- Not so anymore.

- A: I heard that you are easily angry?

- P: Yes.

- It had something to do with my character.

- A: What do you mean by " angry"?

- P: Yes, I'm very punctual.

- I get angry about negligence.

- For example, when I worked very hard in the house and someone in the house is neglectful, here lies something, there lies something, it is a chaos, then I get easily angry about it when I'm tired.

- But many people have this.

- In fact, I always have this.

- In my profession it is very good that I'm like this.

- A: We will take care that you will become healthy again.

- P: I don't believe it.

- The less you believe, the better.

- The patients who don't believe in homoeopathy are the best patients.

- Be careful with people who believe everything.

- The first consolation was on October 23, 1987 and the feedback on December 29, 1987, so two months later.

Feedback (december 29, 1987)

- A: Tell me, how was the reaction?

- P: The first day I had a very severe headache.

- I could work, but I was ill.

- Later, it became better.

- It lasted three days, but then the headache disappeared.

- I felt bad for two, three days.

- I still got the aphthae for 14 days, then they were cured, one week later I was completely healthy.

- It was fantastic.

- Later I got an aphthae again, and it is still there.

- But now, it is healing.

- I was wondering, "How is it possible?

- The doctor is a magician." That one week it was fantastic.

- I didn't experience this for about 10 years.

- This aphthae is very deep, even the lip is swollen and it is healing very slowly.

- This morning I had pain and I thought...

- A: But previously, you had aphthae uninterruptedly?

- P: Yes, already for 10 years...

- A: Also in the throat?

- P: Yes, last year about this period I had many aphthae in the throat, but now I don't have complaints with it.

- In fact, I feel very well, really.

- If this aphthae disappears...

- But I think, I will get aphthae on the tongue again.

- I feel something like that...

- On the tongue, it is very annoying.

- A: Did you have salivation when you had these aphthae?

- P: Yes.

- But not so much as before.

- You can't compare it with the first time, when I was here.

- A: In general, do you notice other changes?

- P: Before, you asked me if I had problems with my intestines.

- I payed attention to it and I have many complaints with it.

- I also have many complaints with my feet, with the circulation.

- I didn't suffer from it previously.

- I don't know whether it has something to do with it.

- I think, it is coming through now.

- Previously, I always suffered from tired feet, but now it is very strong.

- In the evening I have swollen feet.

- Previously, I also had complaints with the circulation during the pregnancies.

- A: How is your distended abdomen?

- P: It is much better.

- The distended abdomen has gone.

- I must tell you that I payed much more attention to my food.

- I ate more uncooked food and fruit.

- Previously, I couldn't because of the pain.

- I got aphthae from it, it was so sharp and it was tickling.

- A: Do you still suffer very much from this aphthae?

- P: Yes, a little bit, but it doesn't hurt so much as before.

- It can be so deep, you can't avoid it...

- Four, five times a day I clean my teeth, but it doesn't help much.

- A: No, it won't help certainly.

- P: It was very difficult for me to drink only tea.

- Previously, I drank coffee by the jars.

- In the meantime I drank ten cups of coffee, I don't know whether it is bad, but..

- Sometimes I couldn't resist the temptation.

- But I feel much better now.

- I can sleep much better, in fact it is not bad.

- A: Do you go to bed earlier?

- P: Yes.

- In fact it is better.

- Previously, I avoided it.

- A: Do you sleep well?

- P: Oh yes, very well.

- I sleep too much.

- I think it is a pity.

- I can always sleep.

- Last time you said that I was weak.

- I also think so.

- You can't admit it.

- For example, I'm much more tired because of the tea.

- Previously, I kept myself awake artificially with coffee.

- A: What about the perspiration at night?

- P: It is the same.

- A: Do you still perspire at night?

- P: Yes, it is exactly the same as before, certainly not more.

- A: But then you perspired at night.

- I wrote it down here.

- P: Yes, in fact I still perspire at night.

- But not so that I am wet.

- A: But you still perspire?

- P: Yes.

- A: Do you still sleep on the right side?

- P: Yes.

- A: All right.

- That is a good reaction.

- P: Yes?

- A: Of course, if you the first time...

- P: Yes, I think it is fantastic.

- Everybody says it.

- I think it is a pity that I was so ill of the tablet.

- A: But it is normal.

- Previously, you did everything to get rid of it.

- P: Yes, gargle, drinking tea, suck cow- berries, nibble leek and so on.

- Everything I read about what might help I did.

- But it didn't improve.

- It became worse and worse.

- I didn't have any hope.

- When I came here the first time I was nobody, I was really ill.

- When I get rid of these aphthae I am really the old one.

- I don't think it is so bad when there is only one aphthae left.

- A: Don't worry, it will heal completely.

- P: I can hardly believe it, but I'm very satisfied so far.

- The remedy was Mercurius.

- I repeated the remedy at that time.

- Maybe I should have waited, but I repeated it.

- She came back four months later, on April 1, 1988, and didn't have any problems.

- I repeated again in May, because she had a relapse and in August 1988 once again, and until now June 1989, she is doing well.

- Question: "When she came the first time she was discontented."

- Remark:".. and she was theorizing."

- A: Yes, that's right, she theorized very much, but if someone has aphthae constantly from 18 until 37 you are wondering why and try to find a reason for it.

- She saw every doctor and the more you go to the doctors the more you theorize.

- The dentist says it is because of that, another doctor says it is because of that and you give all possible remedies and explanations.

- The doctors try to give explanations so that they don't have cure.

- That's modern medicine.

CASE12

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 44 years old

- I would like to give you some advice: if you start working homoeopathically, then don't leave that place, because you can only get experience if you can follow the same patients for 20.30.40 years.

- I saw a homoeopath in England, who moved every two years.

- He started working somewhere and after tow years he said, "Now I know enough and therefore I want to live in another town and start from the beginning again and cure everybody."

- After the next two years he did the same.

- But it is better to stay in the same place and to take care of the same patients, so that you can see what you did wrong.

- You can see, for example, that a remedy like Mercurius works very, very slowly, so that you only see an improvement after years.

- It is easy to treat new patients constantly, you can earn money, but it is not good.

- Stick to your old patients and try to cure them and to see how they are doing.

- You will also discover that you have to repeat certain remedies very seldom like Mercurius, for example, and when you are dealing with other remedies, for example, with Sepia, you will see that after some time they will need Ignatia, then Nux vomica, Natrum muriaticum, Apis and Alumina.

- These six remedies are a group which alternate with each other.

- That is not so with Mercurius.

- Mercurius stays, also Argentum nitricum and other remedies.

- That is very strange.

- A: I saw you the first time on August 22.

- You already come here for five years.

- Do you see the reflection of the light?

- That is because of greasy skin.

FACE,GREASY : Agar., arg-n., aur., bar-c., bry., bufo., calc., caust., chin., mag-c., med., merc., nat-m., plb., psor., rhus-t., sel., stram., thuj., tub.

- A: Originally, your problem was general tiredness.

- You noticed the tiredness in both lower arms.

- Especially when you had to write, it was a kind of trembling in both hands.

- P: Yes, also a slight numbness in the fingertips.

- A: Pain here, then there, not in a certain place.

- The pain was burning.

- P: In the legs, arms and in the back, everywhere.

- A: And a feeling of pressure in the ears, as if you were in an aeroplane.

- P: Yes, as if the altitude changes rapidly when the plane is landing.

- He says that he has a kind of weakness and trembling while writing.

- If you look in the Repertory under extremities, " trembling, hand, writing, while" on page 1213 you see four capital remedies.

EXTREMITIES,TREMPLING,HAND,writing, while : Agar., all-c., alum., ant-c., bar-c., bism., camph., caps., carb-ac., Caust., chel., chin., cimic., colch., ferr., hep., hyos., ign., kali-br., kali-c.,lycps., lyss., Merc., morph., nat-m., nat-p., nat-s., olnd., ph-ac., phos., Plb., puls., sabad., samb., sil., stann., Sulph., zinc.

- From Causticum you know that they slowly develop paralysis.

- The differential diagnosis in this rubric with another capital remedy is very difficult.

- For which?

- For Plumbum.

- Both also have the muscle atrophy and the tendon contractions, like Dupuytren's contracture.

- Plumbum is the first remedy in Dupuytren's contracture in the palm of the hand.

- You know this in older people who had a very good life, eat well and slowly become arteriosclerotic.

- But the causation of this disease is completely different in Causticum than in Plumbum.

- In Plumbum there is no particular mental reason, but in Causticum there is.

- It is a long- standing grief which paralysis Causticum.

- Causticum is the first remedy in a multiple sclerosis after a long- standing grief Causticum is the first remedy.

- The second remedy is Natrum muriaticum and then comes Alumina.

- In Alumina the paralysis is cause by long- standing disappointments and a second reason is too much work.

- Normally it concerns Sepia women.

- Sepia and Alumina that it is the chronic Sepia.

- In the rubric " trembling, hand writing, while" Sulphur is also capital and there are a lot of other remedies.

- Natrum phosphoricum also has trembling hands and a Dupuytren's contracture.

- In which disease?

- In diabetes with acidity, as Boericke writes.

- Diabetes patients who inject insulin and who develop the contractions in the hand is Natrum phosphoricum.

- In the rubric there is also Natrum muriaticum, Kali carbonicum, all remedies which withhold their feelings; besides Ignatia.

- Ignatia has all kinds of neurologic symptoms even going to unconsciousness from emotions.

- A: You also had to urinate very often.

- You were trembling while lifting up a cup of coffee.

- P: That's right, yes.

- They take a cup and they start trembling when they bring it to their mouth.

- They are trembling when they take something in their hand or put out their hand.

- They have to hold on to something in order not to tremble.

- A: You were also suffering from bad odor form the mouth, you had bad breath.

- Also a headache.

- P: Almost always.

- A: The concentration was bad.

- Later, you noticed that there was in coordination while playing tennis.

- P: Yes, it was the second time I was here.

- There was a long period in between.

- He talks as if his mouth is full, as if he had a hot potato in his mouth.

- P: When I came the second time I had the same symptoms as the first time, but only a little bit worse.

- I really had incoordination, especially while playing tennis.

- A: So we can say, you had some remarkable symptoms at the beginning and why I gave the remedy...

- You also had salivation for the mouth.

- P: Yes, very much.

- A: Also at night.

- Your tongue was coated.

- Put your tongue out again.

- P: (Puts his tongue out again.)

- A: Yes, it looked much better.

- You also had an indented tongue.

- You got the remedy in 1982 in M potency.

- It became better, the symptoms of tiredness became better.

- The headache went away.

- It was relatively good.

- You have been seen by a colleague by accident, who went the wrong direction.

- P: He changed to Sulphur.

- A: That is not so bad.

- P: No, because I felt well at that moment.

- A: You felt very well and yet you have been treated further.

- P: Yes.

- I stayed away, because I didn't feel well.

- Don't critize a colleague who prescribed a wrong remedy, don't blame him, because we all make mistakes.

- The patient got Mercurius M in August 1982, in October 1982 Sac-lac and in December 1982 again Sac-lac and in February 1983 a colleague gave him Hepar sulphuris.

- The differential diagnosis between Hepar and Mercurius is indeed not easy.

- At which point can you differentiate both, apart from the salivation at night?

- Answer: "Mercurius doesn't like warmth."

- A: Mercurius doesn't like it very warm and Hepar likes it very warm, very warm.

- Both have bad inflammations, both are sensitive to cold, but Hepar is much more sensitive in this way than Mercurius.

- Also the way they are sleeping: Mercurius doesn't tolerate cold, so he covers himself up very well, but when he gets too warm, he puts one foot or an arm out of the covers.

- Then he cools down and he puts it back.

- Hepar will never put a finger out of the covers.

- He will sleep completely covered up.

- Concerning the desires you can differentiate Hepar and Mercurius.

- Only by character they are difficult to differentiate.

- Hepar can also be very angry, people who will never laugh, like Nitricum acidum.

- The differential diagnosis is very difficult, that's why a colleague gave him Hepar and that is understandable.

- A: Wait.

- You came for treatment on August 28, 1989.

- I gave you a remedy.

- On February 18, 1983 my colleague changed to Hepar and to another remedy, to Sulphur and you felt good.

- On January 31 you were here the last time.

- Then you came back on July 9, 1986, again the same complaints as before.

- This means that with one dose of Mercurius from 1982 until 1986, so for four years he was doing fine.

- In the meantime he got Hepar sulphuris, Sulphur 10M and 50M, but this didn't disturb the evolution.

- Remark: " Hepar is an antidoted of Mercurius."

- A: Yes, they say it is antidote, but if would have antidoted in this case, he would have had a relapse, and it was not so.

- Concerning the antidote I have my doubts.

- In one case it antidotes, in the other it doesn't.

- A: Besides, clear incoordination, when you...

- P: Just the movement, to bring both arms apart at the same time it didn't work anymore.

- I couldn't play sports at that time.

- A: I wanted to take it on video because of the first remedy you took.

- That was your remedy it was repeated only four years later.

- All the time you were doing better.

- Although they prescribed another remedy, which didn't do anything.

- You were here on July 9, 1986.

- I wrote down: originally came because of a depression, a numb feeling, writing difficulties and tiredness.

- You started to write scrawly..

- After the treatment your mood was better.

- The writing problems remained and until now they are still there.

- That's written here.

- Since September 1985 there is also the problem of incoordination while playing tennis.

- Incoordination problems especially in the upper limbs.

- You also became tired from the slightest exertion.

- The blood examination was normal.

- Radiologically nothing could be seen.

- Trembling while lifting up something, " when I put my hand out, it is trembling."

- Since December a kind of pressure in the left ear, as if there was a lump inside, " stopped sensation".

- Healthy teeth became loose.

- Every night salivation from the mouth.

- The last months more complaints with a bad odor from the mouth.

- Bad smell of the perspiration, especially at night.

- Nevertheless, the memory improved compared to previously.

- The concentration is better.

- "I'm extremely closed by character.

- If there is something wrong, I bottle it up and I am angry."

- In fact, you are very soft person, but you easily become angry and you withhold it.

- P: Yes.

- That's what you always see in Mercurius cases, they with hold their anger.

- The loosening of healthy teeth is a Mercurius sign and the tartar points very strongly to Mercurius.

- A: At night you salivate on your pillow.

- You like soup, bread, aversion butter.

- In fact, everything arose in 1972/1973.

- That's what we found out.

- "I couldn't sleep because of work, because it didn't work as I wanted.

- It lasted 14 days and since then everything started."

- So, it began because of a grief.

- In every case, except in newborn children, there is a causation and usually the reason is situated in the psychological area.

- If you ask them, you will find a point where the problem lies.

- First it is an energetic problem, then comes the physical expression of the energetic problem.

- In this case the problem lies in his job.

- A: After 10M it became better and better slowly.

- What remained of the incoordination.?

- P: It is gone now.

- I must say, on Saturday I played quite a lot of tennis, and at a certain moment I thought, "What is this?" But I must say that I exaggerated.

- I played tennis for almost 5 hours.

- Usually, when I play sports I do it for two hours and then I don't have problems with the coordination.

- Not at all.

- A: A headache?

- P: It's almost gone.

- Now and then I get a headache, just like everybody, I think.

- But the hard pressure which I had previously above the right eye is gone.

- A: And the tiredness?

- P: There is nothing particular.

- I feel all right.

- A: Concerning you character you like discipline?

- P: Especially concerning myself, I'm less hard as a stone concerning myself, towards other people I'm less hard.

- Especially towards friends and members of the family, but towards myself I'm as hard as a stone.

- A: What I don't give up until I reach what I intend to reach.

- Of course, it has to be with in the limits of possibility, but what I want I get within certain limits.

- A: You engage yourself 100%.

- P: 100%, also on the sports level.

- I haven't exercised of almost two years and now I am exercising this winter to be fit in the summer so that I can still enjoy sports.

- Not that I have problems with coordination or that I'm exhausted afterwards.

- Last Saturday I really overdid it in playing sports and yesterday I was really tired, but today I'm fine again.

- A: You are a kind of a department, aren't you?

- P: Yes, of a department which takes care of planning and financing of all the big projects in the factory.

- To give you an idea: last year had an average of 1 billion.

- I'm responsible for the coordination of several departments which participate in this project.

- This means a kind of responsibility.

- I try to get things ready in time, and try to take care that the budget isn't over stepped too much.

- That is a very exhausting job.

- A: Do you think that you do your job rather in a straight way?

- P: Yes.

- I am not easily dissuaded.

- I know what is good and right for a certain project and then I perform the project in a corresponding way, unless someone else can convince me of the opposite.

- I just go on with my project and at this level I sympathize very little with the feelings and the emotions of others.

- A: That is what I wanted to say, that in your job-and maybe also as a person-you are rather straight, in the sense that you aren't easily dissuaded.

- P: I don't like deviations and compromises.

- I prefer it black and white.

- A: Yes, black and white, that's a good expression.

- P: Then everybody knows what he has to do.

- A: We could say you are a rather conservative person.

- P: I would not say really conservative, because I am always accessible to new ideas.

- A: Yes, I agree with you.

- P: You may not see it this way.

- A: But it is your way to hold yourself to what is good and right.

- P: Yes, I stick to that, until someone proves that there is something better and then I'm satisfied with that.

- Then I'm also the first person who will agree.

- But it has to be better.

- A: I also notice that every time you come you are well-dressed.

- Do you like to be well- dressed in your job?

- P: Yes, I do, but not during the weekends.

- Then I wear sports clothes, fluent clothes.

- But when I go to work my clothes have to be all right.

- A: Always wearing a tie and keep the face.

- Is this also in your office, on your desk?

- P: Yes, also on my desk.

- : Also very tidy, nice.

- P: And I also expect this from my fellow workers.

- A: Do people say that you are a little bit too dictatorial?

- P: Maybe they say it of me, but surely not to me.

- A: What did you want to do something with people.

- I found it at work now.

- Every day there is something new and I am always working with people.

- I mean, within the hundred members of the family and the 500 employees there are always new projects, always other people.

- "Every day something else".

- Don't forget, desire to wander, desire to travel, Mercurius is there.

- Mercurius likes to travel as well as Calcarea phosphorica, Tuberculinum or Carcinosin.

- Mercurius also likes changes.

- A: What did you study?

- P: I studied at the technical school.

- A: It was not difficult to become a lawyer.

- Did you ever think of becoming a judge?

- P: No.

- I never thought about that.

- I'm rather a practical man.

- A: What do you think about injustices?

- Are you sensitive to it?

- P: I'm rather.

- How shall I express myself...

- A: My question is the following:..

- Not outside you field of course, but when there is something in the world politics.

- AP: No.

- If something happens at work that is unjust I will surely talk about it.

- Absolutely.

- A: But previously you would become angry about it.

- P: Yes, yes.

- But I kept it to myself.

- Maybe this has something to do with age?

- It could play a role.

- When I compare this to six or seven years ago, when this all started, I could go to someone and say: I don't like this or that.

- A: You have become more open.

- You see the effect of the remedy is that he has become more open and can express his feelings much easier.

- He can easily get rid of his anger and doesn't have to withhold himself.

- The physical symptoms arise by withholding the anger.

- He became paralysed because at his job it didn't turn out the way he wanted.

- Without Mercurius he probably would have had Multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease.

- Over the years the trembling, the coordination difficulties became worse and at the age of 52, 55 years old it is Parkinson's disease.

- Do you understand how long it takes before you get the real picture of Parkinson's disease and why it is so difficult to cure this disease?

- It is a development of many years.

- Everything started in 1972 and in 1982 he came to the Center, that is 10 years.

- Now, he is better.

- If someone comes to your practice with the real picture of Parkinson's disease this is a development of 20, 30 years.

- Therefore you don't believe that you can cure this in one or two years, if it is curable at all.

- With Parkinson's disease it is often too late to cure.

- For us, homoeopaths, the prognosis is often important.

- We have to know how the disease develops and we have to be logical.

- There are no miracles, I mean, you can't replace an eye with homoeopathy.

- Don't say that you can cure paralysis.

- Maybe, you can cure one paralysis with Rhus toxicodendron in two months, but this paralysis had nothing to do with a Plumbum paralysis, that is completely different.

- Only after the consultation if you have an idea of the remedy and the duration of the disease you can say whether it is curable or not.

- And with Parkinson's disease I doubt very much whether you still have the time to do something when people only come when they are 60 or 70 years old and whether they live long enough to have an amelioration.

- That's what happened to my 76 year old Causticum patient, whom I cured from a bronchitis with pneumonia.

- Before he had a varicose ulcer which has been operated on and which opened again during the homoeopathic treatment.

- His lungs are all right now, he can cough, he has relatively good health.

- I worked with him for about six years, but now he has a kind of slowly appearing paralysis, which I can't cure anymore.

- He is 76 years old and I did everything for him I could, but now I can't anymore.

- I'm sure that it is Causticum, because now he can bring up the expectoration, there is no inflammation anymore and because the other problems disappeared.

- Now, he is in a difficult situation because of his son.

- His son is a big man with a lot of money and he has a relationship with his secretary.

- That is the problem.

- The old man has worked his whole life long and prepared everything for his son.

- He took over the store 25 years ago and in the meantime he developed it into a big factory. His father is an old man now and now he has to see his son who is married and has another relationship.

- He can't digest this situation goes on I can give him Causticum as much as I want, he wont cure and therefor I said that I couldn't do anything else for him.

- The only thing I can do is to hold him on this level so that he can go on waling and working, maybe until he is 85 years old, then he can die.

- He agreed with it, but another promised him that he could cure him and he gave him a kind of neuroleptic.

- For two weeks he took one a day, the next two weeks two a day and this increased gradually.

- Last week I saw him and he told me that he can walk much better now, but that he falls down.

- He fell down on his knee 3 times.

- You see, that's the way it goes.

- The prognosis is very important, we need it for ourselves, so that we don't doubt about the action of the homoeopathic remedy.

CASE13

Mercurius solubilis

- Boy, 16 years old

- A: He has chicken pox.

- It starts with vesicles, then they dry up.

- Little pimples with pus.

- Three weeks ago you had an influenza.

- It was cured with Bryonia.

- Afterwards, you were doing well.

- The fever went away after a few days.

- Your sister also had chicken pox three weeks ago at the time you had influenza.

- When did you get this chicken pox?

- MP: On Monday he had a headache and little knots behind the ears.

- A: Is this what you mean by knots?

- MP: No, this here.

- Oh yes, this is swelling of the lymph nodes.

- There you also had a... Did it start with this?

- P: Yes.

- A: Did it start with the swelling of the lymph nodes in the throat?

- P: Yes.

- A: Here, at the front you don't have swelling?

- P: No.

- MP: He had a rather high fever, above 39º on Tuesday morning.

- He took a bath and when he got out of the bath he was full of spots.

- A: But the fever stayed high, didn't it?

- MP: Yes, all day long.

- Yesterday the fever went down a little bit, but in the evening it was high again, yesterday above on Tuesday morning.

- He took a bath and when he got out of the bath he was full of spots.

- A: But the fever stayed high, didn't it?

- MP: Yes, all day long.

- Yesterday the fever went down a little bit, but in the evening it was high again, yesterday above 40º C.

- A: Tonight he slept very little?

- MP: Yes.

- Ache tossed about very much.

- Why?

- P: Because of the headache.

- A: What do you feel exactly in your head?

- P: A kind of pressure.

- A: Where?

- P: Above on my head, when I exert myself.

- During exertion it knocks, then it is also more in the front.

- A: Do you still have the headache when you lie quietly?

- P: Not so bad.

- A Worries during motion.

- P: Yes.

- A: You can't sleep because of the headache?

- P: No, I can't.

- A: Did you dream?

- P: No.

- A: You didn't dream anything.

- So, concerning this it is all right.

- You don't dream at all?

- P: No I didn't.

- For which remedy do I ask this?

- For Baptisia.

- It is a serious case with high fever, inflamed varicella.

- The first remedy we have to exclude is Baptisia.

- He couldn't sleep because of the headache and not because of a delirium.

- There are no nightly deliriums.

- A: And yet you don't sleep.

- P: No.

- MP: He had a sore throat yesterday, a choking feeling.

- A: Do you still have this?

- P: Yes.

- A: Can you swallow?

- P: No, not very well.

- A: Put out your tongue.

- P: The tongue is coated, but only in the middle, not at the edge.

- The tonsils are not swollen; and dark red.

- Put out your tongue a little bit further.

- There is also a bad odor from the mouth.

- MP: Yes, I think so.

- A: In the throat ther is nothing to see, but nevertheless you can swallow with difficulty.

- P: Yes.

- A: Do you have a little bit of pain?

- P: The pain is different from yesterday.

- I feel a kind of pressure.

- A: A pressure, but not real pain, does you?

- P: Yes.

- When I swallow, I have pain.

- A: Does this extend somewhere?

- P: No.

- A: Can you drink water easily?

- P: Yes, very well.

- A: You don't have difficulties with drinking?

- P: No.

- It depends.

- When I sit down, it is much better.

- A: That is normal.

- But I mean, you don't have a choking feeling in your throat when you drink water?

- P: I didn't notice it.

- A: And when you eat?

- P: I don't eat anything.

- I can't eat.

- MP: The day before yesterday he ate normally.

- A: How do you feel in general?

- P: Miserable.

- A: What do you mean?

- P: Awkward.

- A: Also tired?

- P: Tired?

- Hm- in fact not.

- A: Don't you feel weak?

- P: No.

- I would like to do something.

- But I cant.

- A: I have the impression that you are weepy.

- P: No.

- A: It seems to me.

- Or am I mistaken?

- P: Maybe, it is because of the eyes.

- A: Do you have the tendency to cry?

- P: No.

- A: Not at all?

- P: No.

- A: When I asked you how you are doing, you have to swallow?

- MP: He has mucus in his mouth and he can hardly get rid of it.

- A: I can start from the fact that you don't easily weep?

- P: No.

- A: But, you feel weak?

- P: Yes.

- A: Did you urinate much?

- Does it have a strong odour or not?

- P: No.

- A: What about the stool?

- Does it smell?

- P: No.

- (Pause)

- A: How cold you describe the tongue?

- Put out your tongue again.

- P: (Puts out the tongue)

- A: It is coated.

- Do you have salivation at night?

- P: Yes.

- Also during the day, when I try to sleep.

- A: There is salivation from the mouth?

- P: Yes.

- It is more a mucus salivation.

- A: Do perspire at night?

- P: Not particularly at night.

- A: Always?

- P: Not always.

- Often during fever.

- (Pause)

- A: Put out your tongue once again...

- Since when do you have salivation from the mouth?

- P: Not.

- Os long ago.

- Since last night.

- A: Did you also see on your pillow that it was wet?

- P: Yes, it was last night.

- MP: He also slept this forenoon.

- A: In fact, you sleep constantly don't you?

- How does the perspiration feel?

- P: What do you mean?

- A: Is it viscous?

- P: Well yes...

- Which remedy?

- Answer: "Rhus toxicodendron."

- A: Rhus toxicodendron.

- That is a good idea, but he doesn't say that it is itching.

- Rhus toxicodendron does not always have to itch.

- In a serious Rhus toxicodendron inflammation of vesicles you don't find itching, it is only very painful, but it does not itch.

- If you have only the vesicles which are not inflamed you see the typical Rhus toxicodendron itching.

- This boy lies very quietly there, he is not restless at all.

- Rhus toxicodendron would constantly turn.

- All right, Rhus toxicodendron has also the salivation, but not this constant perspiration.

- Rhus toxicodendron has a rather dry heat.

- In this case we could talk about ulcerated vesicles, a very serious case, and I gave Mercurius.

- Ulcerations, change of serous liquid to pus, that is Mercurius.

- Also the eruptions which start a vesicles, they dry up, then develop pus, then new vesicles appear, which also dry up and become pus and so on, vesicles which always extend further and further.

- I think that is impetigo.

- Think of Mercurius, it can help you very much.

Feedback (1 day later)

- A: How high is the fever?

- MP: 37.2º C.

- A: Put out your tongue.

- P: (Puts out his tongue)

- A: It is much better.

- And the perspiration?

- P: It is less.

- A: What about the headache?

- P: It is much better.

- A: Did you sleep last night?

- P: Yes, but I had nightmares.

- A: About what?

- P: I can say.

- I know that I went to the toilet and I only noticed that I got up when I came back.

- A: But no particular dreams?

- P: No.

- A: Do you have the feeling that you are clearly better?

- P: Yes.

- A: On the abdomen, there were still a few inflamed spots.

- What about them?

- Show me.

- P: (Show the spots on the abdomen)

- A: It has disappeared now.

- You can still take some today and then it is all right.

- You find chicken pox on page 1310.

- Pulsatilla is capital.

- At the beginning I thought of Pulsatilla, because it seemed as if he would cry.

- Often, we forget Pulsatilla in inflammations.

- And ulcerations.

- He reacted very quickly.

- One day after the remedy he looks much better, the fever is gone, he slept much better, everything was better and a few days later he was completely cured.

CASE14

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 63 years old

- A: You came here with pain in the knee some months ago.

- I think it started in June, now it is September.

- What was your problem?

- What did you feel in your knee?

- P: It was a little bit earlier.

- When I sat down on my left knee and when I got up again it locked.

- I had to pull it up again and stretch it out.

- It jumped back and a little bit later it was all right again.

- Sometimes I also had it on the right side, but it was only at night, I didn't notice anything during the day, but I did at night.

- At night I had to get up 2or 3 times, so that I was out of bed.

- I walked two or three meters and then I went to bed again and the pain was gone.

- But 1, 1 1/2 hours later the pain came back and It went like this the whole night.

- I had to get up three to four time.

- During the day I hardly had pain.

- He had pain in the knee at night and he had to get up.

- Where can we find this?

- Under extremities, "pain, night, bed, drives out of" on page 1044: Chamomilla, Ferrum and Mercurius.

- P: I could easily go up and downstairs.

- Once I asked the doctor, who checks the blood pressure of my wife, and he advised me to see another doctor.

- I went there and I had to take off my clothes.

- A: He was an orthopaedist?

- P: Yes.

- I had to lie down on the reclining chair and he took my right leg and pushed on the inside of the knee and asked, whether it hurt.

- I said, "Yes, it hurts", and then he said, "It's a meniscus."

- Can this be meniscus?

- If he only has pain at night?

- For the surgeon there are two reasons for an operation: to cure the patient or to earn money, and with an operation of the meniscus you can earn quite a lot of money.

- But I doubt the diagnosis.

- If it is really the meniscus, if there is really a tear I can't do anything about it.

- We will see.

- Do you hear his voice, do you hear how it is trembling?

- P: Then he advised me to have an electrocardiogram made and an X-Ray of the knee.

- I also brought the X-Ray a few times.

- I had to come back to have blood taken and I should have been hospitalized.

- I already reserved a room in the hospital, but then I came to you and you advised me not to have it done.

- A: I advised you not to be operated on.

- P: You were against it.

- You told me.

- A: Why was I against it?

- Because it was not logical.

- It couldn't be the meniscus, because you didn't have complaints during the day, the diagnosis couldn't be right, you only complained about it at night.

- So, we have to be logical and therefore I thought the diagnosis can’t be right, because you only had pain at night.

- I gave you a remedy a few times very shortly after each other, to which you hardly improved.

- Afterwards I gave you another remedy at the end of July when you were here, now it is about the middle of September.

- What did you notice after the remedy?

- P: When I took the tablets I was as if I was a little bit drunk.

- I took it in the morning when I was here.

- I went home and I had a funny feeling the whole day.

- I didn't feel like doing anything at all, in fact I was not tired, but everything was too much for me.

- A: did you suffer from this as well before?

- P: No, I never had this before.

- Then I called you once or twice that it was better, but I wasn't cured yet.

- After the last tablet I didn't have to call you anymore.

- A: You mean the last remedy at the end of July?

- P: Yes.

- A: And then the pain went away gradually?

- P: Yes, I still woke up at night, because it hurt, but I didn't have to get up anymore.

- I had to turn around a little bit and then the pain was gone.

- I also could sleep with the knees upon each other again when I was lying on that side.

- I couldn't do it before.

- That is very important.

- If Mercurius has pain in the knee, they can't lie with the two knees against each other because slight touch aggravates.

- They put a pillow under the painful knee.

- This together with the pain at night I found one remedy: Mercurius.

- This is four, five years ago and he is doing well, he doesn't have problems anymore with the knee.

- As you see, apparently you can cure a meniscus with Mercurius.

CASE15

Pain the leg

Mercurius solubilis

- Man, 66 years old

- November 6, 1987

- A: I saw you the first time in December 1986.

- The problem was varicose veins from which you didn't have complaints.

- You got pain in the left leg.

- P: In the leg where I had the varicose veins.

- A: You have been operated on for varicose veins.

- P: In January 1986.

- A: After they removed the varicose veins you didn't have pain in the leg anymore, but 14 days later the pain came back again.

- You woke up three to seven times a night because of pain in the left leg.

- P: Yes.

- A: The pain was better when you lay on your back.

- That's what it says here.

- He had varicose veins in one leg and at the same time he had pain; therefore they said he had pain because of the varicose veins and he was operated on.

- Afterwards the pain was gone for a while.

- Why?

- You could say it was a suppression and if this was the case new complaints had to appear which were on a deeper level.

- But did the pain disappear for a short time?

- Answer: "Because of something acute."

- A: Yes, that's right.

- This is to say they made him sick with PENTOTHAL and other medicine during the operation.

- Nausea, no appetite and all these kinds of things after an operation are acute complaints.

- They made him acutely ill and the chronic problem was gone immediately.

- But as soon as the intoxication from the anesthesia was reduced, he came back to his normal level and the pain came back.

- Then he had pain at night.

- Here you have to think of a certain remedy like a reflex.

- A: You also had more pain when you sat down for quite a long time.

- Besides, you didn't have to get up at night because of the pain.

- P: No.

- A: When you were bicycling you didn't have pain.

- Here we think of Rhus toxicodendron: pain at night, and when he sat down for quite a long time, worse at the beginning of a motion, better while bicycling and it was the left leg.

- A: Another complaint was that you had quite a lot of salivation at night, more than previously.

- You suffered from it always, but at the time you came here you suffered from it more than before.

- Show me your tongue.

- P: (puts out his tongue)

- A: It is still coated yellowish.

- Here you see what is in the books: the deep longitudinal crack in the tongue.

- The study of the tongue is of great value, you could write a whole book about it, but that is an extra issue.

- A: I asked you about your character, is that right?

- P: Yes.

- A: Here, it says, that you like justice too much.

- That's right, isn't it.

- His lips are rather Sulphur lips, plethoric, dark red lips, as you see in Sulphur and Natrum muriaticum..

- A: It hasn't changed yet.

- You cant bear injustice at all., then you become angry.

- P: Yes.

- A: How angry can you become?

- Very angry?

- P: Yes.

- A: Or don't you?

- P: Yes, yes, I can.

- A: Do you show it immediately when you become angry?

- P: Yes, I think so, you can see it in my face.

- A: But do you show it immediately?

- Are you hot-tempered?

- P: No.

- - Well yes, sometimes I am.

- A: Do you agree with the modern opinion of the youth?

- P: Yes, I do.

- A: You do?

- P: Well, yes, how should I say?

- As long as it doesn't hinder.

- But it is not our principle that they live together.

- In fact I'm against it, but it doesn't concern me.

- A: You like order very much.

- Or don't you?

- P: Yes.

- A: What kind of injustice don't you tolerate?

- P: If a person has to work for nothing for a rich person.

- That is not my case.

- A: Do you get angry easily?

- I mean, internally?

- P: Yes, maybe.

- A: Anyway, you got the remedy.

- The choice of the remedy was easy, it was very clear.

- The voice was also a little bit trembling, even if you don't notice it so clearly anymore.

- As I already told you the voice of Mercurius trembles the whole time.

- Which other remedy also has a trembling voice?

- Phosphorus, don't forget phosphorus.

- Mercurius also talks as if he has a hot potato in his mouth, but the trembling is very characteristic, it has something to do with the internal character.

- A: Here, it says: Can become angry very much, 'violent anger".

- You got the remedy on november9.

- Almost one month later, on December 6, you told me that the pain was better.

- Before, you had the pain already for one year.

- The first days after the remedy you had a hot feeling.

- You had pain especially in the region of the tibia, a t night.

- "Pain, night in bed".

- I gave you Foliata squalosa then and in February again.

- In June, you told me that it became better gradually.

- Still salivation at night.

- You still woke up at night very often, but not because of the pain you could sleep on this side, which you couldn't before.

- Previously, you couldn't bear the slightest pressure.

- You couldn't lie on that side.

- The relationship of aggravation by slightest touch and the aggravation at night is very interesting.

- The combination of these two modalities is Mercurius.

- You also know which remedy can't tolerate that the fingers touch each other in rheumatism?

- Lac caninum.

- Lac caninum also has the salivation at night.

- A: The tongue is still a little bit coated.

- Put your tongue out.

- P: (Puts his tongue out)

- A: It doesn't tremble anymore.

- The back area is more coated.

- On April 21, you said, " I don't have complaints at all at night.

- My left leg is all right.

- I don't wake up at night anymore."

- That was the result of the treatment, which started on November 9.

- It lasted for with, nine months until the pain disappeared completely.

- This means, that this was a more or less deep rooted complaint.

- How is it at the moment?

- P: All right.

- I don't suffer from it anymore at night.

- I can sleep as well on the left as on the right side.

- Before, when I was lying on the leg, it hurt and now I can put them on each other.

- A: That was also typical.

- Before you couldn't bear one leg on the other.

- You didn't tell me like this, but now you say it yourself.

- You couldn't do it before.

- P: No.

- A: We don't do anything and we wait.

- He got Mercurius a few times, the last time in August 1987 and the last six months I only gave him Sac- lac.

- If you see that he is doing well, don't interfere, only when he relapses, when the pain comes back clearly.

- Especially, Mercurius acts very deep and very long, for one, two, three years, in deep neurologic problems like multiple sclerosis or similar diseases.

- Whether a remedy acts quickly or slowly, depends on the depth of the problem.

- The young man with the inflammation of the tonsils (case 8), for example, was doing better four hours after the remedy and in this case it took nine months until the pain disappeared completely.

- The speed of the reaction depends on the depth of the problem.

If we would say Mercurius which symptoms would we have?

Perspiration at night, aggravation by slight touch, salivation, bad odor of the mouth, and so on.

Mercurius

- In aggravation on slight touch there is another remedy, which immediately comes into our mind and that is Mercurius.

- You have to smell the breath and look at the tongue and then you can give Mercurius.

Another case

- In aggravation on slight touch there is another remedy, which immediately comes into our mind and that is Mercurius.

- You have to smell the breath and look at the tongue and then you can give Mercurius.

All the Mercurius symptoms were there: bad odour forms the mouth, coated tongue, salivation from the mouth at night, but also during the day.

Mercurius is the first remedy you think of in the combination of these two symptoms: "Slight touch agg." and "night agg.". Mercurius has also the slow appearance and the slow disappearance of the pain, the way he describes it. Look at the Repertory: "Pain appear gradually and disappear gradually" (p. 1377).

PAIN APPEAR and disappear gradually : Acon., arn., ars., bar-c., bufo., crot-h., glon., jab., kalm., mez., nat-m., op., phos., pic-ac., Plat., psor., sabin., sars., spig.,Stann., staph., stront., sul-ac., sulph., verb.

for a slight offense : Hep., merc., nux-v.

- Concerning the differential diagnosis it becomes very difficult with Mercurius.

- Both perspire, sneeze while uncovering, are sensitive to the slightest draft of air and are easily angry.

- But there is a big difference on the psychological level : for Mercurius everything must have its place, that is the idea of Mercurius and we don't find this in Hepar.

- They are not so sensitive to injustices and for them the society and its functions are not so important.

CASES

Extra

Why do I ask this? Because Mercurius is also someone who likes order: "I am the father, you are my children, you have to listen to me. I will tell what has to be done. I am the boss." That is Mercurius. Mercurius wants order. He says, "This generation is different" - and when he told this, I thought immediately, "Be careful, you have to see and look if this could be Mercurius." Therefore I asked for the salivation at night

- The duty is the most important thing in kali carbonicum, also in Mercurius, but usually together with a withholding, internal anger.

- We don't find this internal anger in kali carbonicum.

- If you talk to kali carbonicum people they are very polite people.

- In Mercurius people you feel the anger in the background.