HERING'S LAW, SUPPRESSION, AND HOMEOPATHY

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HERING'S LAW AND SUPPRESSION

Peter Morrell

 

Hering's Law, so-called, and by no means regarded by all homeopaths

as a universally applicable law, is named after the American

homeopath Dr. Constantin Hering, 1800-80. It was he who proposed that

under homeopathic treatment true cure works...

 

by bringing back, or revisiting, old symptoms;

by stimulating the healing power of the organism;

by moving sites of disease from the inside to the outside;

by moving sites of disease from more vital to less vital areas;

and from top downwards;

as a result, during cure, eruptions on the skin or old discharges are

likely to recur.

 

This became called 'Hering's Law' and operates in the opposite

direction to suppression.

 

'Cure takes place in a definite orderly manner and direction...normal

vital processes, cellular, organic and systemic, begin at the center

and proceed outwardly...life is a centrifugal force, radiating,

externalizing, ...'from above downward'. In the same sense disease is

a centripetal force, opposing, obstructing, penetrating toward the

center and tending to disorganization... the progression of all

chronic diseases is from the surface toward the center; from less

important to more important organs - 'from below upward'. Curative

medicine reinforces the life force, reverses the morbid process and

annihilates disease. Symptoms disappear from above downwards, from

within outward and in the reverse order of their appearance. When a

patient with an obscure rheumatic endocarditis, for example, begins

to have signs and symptoms of acute arthritis soon after taking the

homeopathic remedy and is relieved of his chest sufferings, we know

that cure has commenced.' [Close, p.132]

 

'Cure... consists of the speedy, gentle and permanent restitution of

health... in its entire extent ...and in the shortest, most reliable,

and safest manner, according to clearly intelligible reasons or

principles.' [Close, p.74]

 

'Suppression or palliation of disease, is the removal of the symptoms

of disease by external, mechanical, chemical or topical treatment; or

by means of powerful drugs, given internally in massive doses, which

have a direct physiological or toxic effect but no true therapeutic

or curative action. The suppressed case always goes bad... the

abscess and fistula act as if they were the vent or exhaust of the

disease, affording temporary safety to vital organs. Close the

exhaust and an explosion follows.' [Close, pp.74-5]

 

'The mere removal of the tangible products of disease by mechanical

means as in the case of tumors, or of the external visible signs of

disease by topical applications as in the case of eruptions and

discharges, not only does not cure the disease, but does the patient

a positive injury and renders the case inveterate or more difficult

to cure...to the death of the patient from metastasis and the

complications which result from such treatments. Disease is only

cured by the internally administered similar medicine...' [Close,

p.73]

 

'It should be a matter of routine in making the first examination, to

ascertain what drugs have been used. In chronic cases this

investigation should extend back through the whole lifetime of the

patient. The diseases from which the patient has suffered, and the

drugs used in their treatment should be ascertained if possible...

the key to a difficult case may be the drug or drugs which

have 'cured' some acute disease, perhaps early in the patient's

medical history. Antidoting the drug clears up the case. Frequently,

for example, will some chronic disease of the liver, kidneys, spleen

or lungs be traced back to an initial attack of malarial fever

checked by massive doses of quinine or arsenic. The patient

has 'never been well since'...' [Close, p.120]

 

'In a case variously diagnosed as chronic gout... I witnessed the

reappearance of a discharge from the urethra fifteen years after the

original gonorrheal discharge had disappeared under the influence of

astringent injections. With the establishment of the discharge, the

patient's 'rheumatic' symptoms began to rapidly improve and a perfect

cure resulted... metastasis of the original disease was caused by the

injections... drug symptoms and complications often arise in the most

unexpected and surprising ways, and baffle all but the most acute and

experienced examiners. Hair dyes, and tonics, complexion beautifiers,

dentrifices, medicated soaps, antiseptics; borax in baby's mouth to

prevent sprue, and carbolic acid in mama's douche to prevent babies;

innumerable ointments and lotions; to say nothing about the equally

numerous patent and proprietary nostrums which fill the shelves of

the corner drug stores and find their way 'down the red lane' into

the human system, all play their part in creating morbid

susceptibility, idiosyncrasy and drug diseases and in making work for

the doctor.' [Close, p.121]

 

Source:

Stuart Close, 1924, The Genius of Homeopathy, Lectures and Essays on

Homeopathic Philosophy, Jain, India reprint.

 

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