MATERIALISM IN MEDICINE

J. T. KENT

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The material organism, without the vital force, is capable of
no sensation, no function, no self-preservation; it derives
all sensation and performs all the functions of life solely by
means of the immaterial being (the vital force) which
animates the material organism in health and in disease.

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When a person falls ill, it is only this spiritual, self acting
(automatic) vital force, everywhere present in his organism,
that is primarily deranged by the dynamic influence
upon it of a morbific agent inimical to life; it is only the vital
force, deranged to such an abnormal state, that can furnish
the organism with its disagreeable sensations, and incline it
to the irregular processes which we call disease; for, as a
power invisible in itself, and only cognizable by its effects
on the organism, its morbid derangement only makes itself
known by the manifestation of disease in the sensations
and functions of those parts of the organism exposed to the
senses of the observer and physician, that is, by morbid
symptoms, and in no other way can it make itself known.
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Therefore disease (that does not come within the province
of manual surgery) considered, as it is by the allopathists,
as a thing separate from the living whole, from the
organism and its animating vital force and hidden in the
interior, be it of ever so subtle a character, is an absurdity,
that could only be imagined by minds of a materialistic
stamp, and has for thousands of years given to the
prevailing system of medicine all those pernicious impulses
that have made it a truly mischievous (non-healing) art.

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The material notion is referred to that existing in
the time of Hahnemann

Rational system involves theory of cause & essential

nature of disease & resort to remove the cause of disease
to bring health

Accummulation of blood ( Proximate cause but not essential

cause, result of cause) – Abstraction of blood
(Palliation by carrying away the products)
Want of tone – Tonics
Want of animal spirits – Stimulants

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Materialism is growing
Perception has become impossible

Perception – Seeing with understanding

All processes involved in organising & interpreting
the sensory stimulation for giving them a necessary meaning
Interpretation of sensory input

This is entirely lost in a materialistic mind

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Materialist – Refuses to believe anything that does not
conform to the laws of time & space

It must be measured, weighed, occupy space

Without this no existence

Everything beyond this is poetic, dreamy mysterious

So they look out in material world for a material cause

Material has no causative power. No creative / propelling

influence
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Causes / simple substance are in natural state, in motion &
cause motion in the body they occupy

Natural state for simple substance is that of power,

mobility,activity

Natural state of matter is rest, quitude, silence

It has no power to move unless acted upon ( Dead body
whose tissues have no action of its own)

Simple substance dominates matter & animates it

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World of motion, of power & world of inertia exist in one
Realm of thought & matter are realm of cause & result

Cause are invisible

Results are visible
Action of material substance can be seen
Action that are visible in material form are result of cause
that exist in form of simple substance which is invisible to
natural eye but visible to spiritual eye / understanding

Materialist cannot grasp this idea / think this way

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Hahnemann contends that the source of health & disease
is not material but spiritual i.e immaterial life principle which
is integrated with body & mind in human organism

Health ( Condition of ease) & Disease are 2 different state

of organism
Both are qualitative states

Life endows body with sensation & function which

determines the qualitative state of organism
The alteration of sensation & function in disease implies
qualitative change of life principle

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Any agent by virtue of some inherent quality can effect
qualitative life principle to produce disagreable sensation &
function – Morbific agent inimical to life

The action & reaction between morbific agent & life

principle takes place in qualitative plane & not in material
Plane

In universe no quality can exist itself other than being

embodied in some substances – chemicophysical,
biological/ psychological

The concrete agent merely serves as a vehicle for a

particular quality / qualitative force
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When morbific concrete agent comes in contact with
concrete organismal body, action & reaction between them
concerned in production of disease imply process whereby
one substance is acted upon by another without
communication / actual interchange of material parts of
substance concerned

The quality processed by one acts on quality inherent in the

other & leads to some changed qualitative condition of the
organism

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The qualitative process of interaction / intercommunication
is described by Hahnemann as dynamic action opposed to
quantitative / mechanical / chemicophysical action

Hahnemann distinguished dynamic action from mechanical

/ Chemical / physical action with illustration of magnetic
power induced to soft iron from a magnet

No interchange of molecules / change in their property

Biologically this process is known as infection

There is no material cause for disease

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Drugs also produce diseased condition in organism
similarly

Influence of a morbific noxae that excite from without the

various maladies is generally invisible & immaterial

It is impossible to mechanically disturb / derange the

components of our body in form & substance / infuse any
pernicious acrid fluid

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First noticable change when man falls ill is altered
sensation & function indicating affection of qualitative vital
force & Life principle

If this is not checked it leads to change in structure of

organs & secretion – Quantitative & Qualitative

These peceptible pathological changes in body are end

results of morbid vital process which is disease manifested
primarily by dynamic derangement

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Every curable disease is made known by signs & symptoms
They shadow for disorderly condition of VF / interior of man

Physician reads it & understands its nature

Images of sickness are continually formed

Observe them to understand their meaning & translate

them

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Incurable disease have few signs & symptoms / common
expressions of pathological condition.

By their absence the disease is known to be incurable

This imaging forth is not recognized by materialist & does

not apprehend their meaning ( Perception)

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Subjective symptoms assessed through sensibilities of
patient which are 1st evidence of all disease is of no value
in rational medicine

Only objective symptoms observed / sensed by physician

( percussion, auscultation, touch, hearing, microscopic, chemical
examination)

Material / organic changes in tissues of the body which

furnish objective symptoms may result from any one / a
number of pathological process / abnormal alteration of
function

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Cannot treat until disease has progressed far enough to
furnish with material results

Neuroses consist almost entirely of subjective symptom –

resort to specifics

Homoeopathic treatment based on phenomena which

patient presents can cure when presents only subjective
symptoms

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Similarly qualitative interchange between drug & life force
causes cure without change in property

These things are confirmed in the wonderful action of

potencies in varying degrees in which they operate upon
man from lowest to highest
( LESSER MATERIAL BETTER ACTION)

So anything which affect life principle morbidly must

do qualitatively & medicine which cures also does same
qualitatively

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Hahnemann observed that any drug was poisonous if
dangerous dosage ( material ) was given. (Aspirin benumbs,
dipress vitality)

Where medical agents are capable of eradicating

organisms by any other method than by stimulation of
dynamic force to the point where nature itself balances the
scale, there is danger to patient sooner / later
Eg: Phenol / Phenobarbitol - Insidious long lasting effect becomes
constitutional & remain unrecognized
Sulphanilamides – danger to normal cell balance. Acts only in early
stages when invading organisms & not when established.
It has great possibilities as homoeopathic remedy – Dr Sutherland 1940

Material doses helps cure by injuring other organs

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Curative power of a specific remedy is not in direct ratio of
its material quantity

It is unsafe to measure power that natural agents have to

work upon engine as human body by their bulk rather than
by their subtility & activity – Boyle

Knowledge of specific quality inherent in medicine cannot

be studied through chemicophysical properties of drugs. It
is acquired only by experimenting the drug on healthy
individual & recording qualitative / dynamic change
produced on them
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• By homoeopathy it is wise & intelligent to converse with
these signs
Nature & cause of modification of dynamic forces of
organism which are essential causes of disease condition
cannot be investigated & then remove them

The remedy modifies the vital force in abnormal action &

modifies to bring it back to normal action

When an effect ceases the cause has ceased to act

(Constructive ,Adaptation ,Quantity cannot be predicted of simple
substance quality in degree of fineness, Subject to reduction,
dominates and control the body which it occupies, Subject to
changes, Endowed with formative intelligent )

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It is the morbidly affected vital force alone that produces
diseases, (1) so that the morbid phenomena perceptible
to our senses express at the same time all the internal
change, that is to say, the whole morbid derangement of
the internal dynamis; in a word, they reveal the whole
disease; consequently, also, the disappearance under
treatment of all the morbid phenomena and of all the
morbid alterations that differ from the healthy vital
operations, certainly affects and necessarily implies the
restoration of the integrity of the vital force and,
therefore, the recovered health of the whole organism.

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