The Practice of Tautopathy During The Classical Era of Homeopathy
The Practice of Tautopathy During The Classical Era of Homeopathy
The Practice of Tautopathy During The Classical Era of Homeopathy
Era of Homeopathy
Posted byMANFRED MUELLER, MA, DHM, RSHOM(NA), CCH
CategoriesANTIDOTING, TAUTOPATHY, RCT, MANFRED MUELLER'S ARTICLES
DateOCTOBER 27, 2013
Comments6 COMMENTS
I and others have, in the modern homeopathic era, spoken out in favor of
using this method as another tool in the homeopathic toolbox. However, I
have noticed that within our own community there is a vast difference in
opinion on the subject bordering almost on a rift. During my earliest
ponderings on the possible use of the tautopathic method in the mid-eighties,
I searched as much of the literature as I had access to. However, given my
current observations on the reactions to this method, I felt it was warranted
to do a more thorough review and documentation of this topic for
presentation to the homeopathic community at large. In fact, I have found
that the controversy on this subject is nothing new. I hope you will find the
results both useful and of interest.
Definitions
One of my observations both in the literature and from conversations with
modern homeopaths, is that there exists some confusion with regards to the
definition of certain terminology. With this in mind, I present the following
clarifications.
Isopathy derives from the Greek word ισοσ (isos), meaning equal or same,
which was generally used in the sense of “equal amounts” and is therefore a
misnomer. The term tautopathy derives from the Greek word ταυτόν (tauton)
= same, selfsame, in the sense of “identical.” Tautopathy is defined by
the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary as “suffering caused by the same
thing that was habitually used previously.” 5
For the purposes of this paper I am using the term tautopathy for “treatment
of a disorder with a potency/lower dose of a harmful agent that apparently
caused that disorder.”
A man of forty-five who had suffered from very severe attacks of asthma for ten
years responded to some extent to constitutional treatment. He had been born
under chloroform anesthesia, and his mother had been greatly upset by the
anesthesia. Natrum sulphuricum and Lachesis, both liver remedies, had seemed
to help him. He was given Chloroformum 30c, and later 200c, and he has been
practically free from asthma for over three years.11
Like Patel, Foubister made the observation that a constitutional remedy
would sometimes not act, even though well-indicated, until the obstacle to
cure caused by the influence of a past drug was removed.
A child of four years falling into short spells of unconsciousness, unable to control
the flow of urine day or night, was absolutely cured by a dose of Terebinthinum
1M. The history of the case was that the child had drunk a lot of turpentine when
eighteen months old and had gone from bad to worse ever since. She never had a
fit after that dose and gradually but quickly got over the enuresis. 17
The tautopathic method was used long before the 1950s when Everitt coined
the term. The method of using a higher potency to antidote the same drug in
a lower potency is really an example of tautopathy.
J. H. Clarke wrote:
Apparently, as usual, the crude poison is antidoted by its potencies, 200c, etc. 20
So wrote Margaret Tyler. Tyler treated the effects of aluminum exposure with
high potencies of Aluminum (A method not generally advisable. See Patel’s
statements on the subject,21 and my own explanation.22) Tyler was fully aware
of the dangers of aluminum cooking utensils, and reports on cases of
poisoning from these utensils. A trip to any “big box” store today in North
America will confirm how relevant her comments on the harm from
aluminum pots are today. A large number of cooking utensils are still being
made out of aluminum.
Even timelier are her comments on the adverse health effects people
sensitive to “emanations of aluminum-plated radiators” experience, not so
much because of the prevalence of these appliances today, but because the
number of people with sensitivities to multiple chemicals, including out-
gassing from common household appliances and products, has now reached
epidemic proportions.23 Her insight into these sensitivities reflects an
understanding of Hahnemann’s comments on dose and susceptibility during
proving,24 and a grasp of the plight of victims susceptible to various modern
artificial (environmental) disorders:
Effects of Sensitivities to Aluminium Emanations
Practical, anyway, this radiator! — light, bright, and gave out unusual heat. …Yet,
after a bit the room did not feel good; one was glad to turn it off. Why? Aluminium
pots were taboo; but the aluminium or aluminium plated radiator was not
suspect. Next what was happening? A curious vertigo; one eye suddenly went out
of focus, and one had to halt, at risk of falling; or when typing, one had to wait for
normal vision… etc… At last it dawned! — perhaps aluminium symptoms? – and
Materia Medica answered, “Yes” — soon confirmed by the fact that, the radiators
savagely smashed, the trouble rapidly disappeared. And when a once-time nurse
came to ask help because she was becoming paralysed, the symptoms she
detailed were with curious exactitude those one had spotted as symptoms of
aluminium emanations. Was she using one of those radiators? Well, the
housemaid where she was nursing had been leaving one of these radiators on in
her bedroom all day during this bitter weather.
…And so the poor soul departed reprieved and happy.
One yearns to say to many one meets, walking warily with the help of an
umbrella, “Pardon me, but have you got one of those splendid aluminium
radiators?”25
How lucky some are whose constitution is strong enough to throw off adverse
effect. Others are not so lucky. I have referred to this unfortunate
phenomenon in my article on the cancer diathesis.26 Homeopaths are experts
on the effects of noxious substances, and they have to look no further than a
materia medica for the information. The above quote also shows how a
homeopath can often recognize by the symptoms when a substance in the
patient’s environment has caused a disorder.
J. Compton Burnett, in a pamphlet on the interfering effects of anesthesia,
related how he found that anesthetized patients who had been drugged with
ether did not respond properly to homeopathic treatment. Not until he tried
antidoting the effects of ether in potency did the indicated remedy act. I read
his pamphlet decades ago and believe it is still in my possession, however, I
am unable to locate it for a citation.
One could argue that Burnett could have used vinegar, the antidote listed
under ether, but while vinegar is the proper antidote to the primary action of
the drug which lasts perhaps a few hours, the potency of ether was
considered the best antidote to the secondary action which could remain for
weeks in some, and even longer in others.
It is worthy of remark, that the dynamized coffee, as I can affirm from long
experience, prevents or neutralizes in many persons, the secondary effects of
roast coffee. This would seem confirmatory of the idiopathic method of
treatment.29
This distinction is important because when the potentized drug is used to
counter the crude drug, so long as the patient is still under the influence of
that drug, we can expect trouble.
Miss R. 64. History: Vaccinated thrice in infancy; all failed. Right breast and
cervical glands on both sides scirrhous. Marked general debility. Treatment
unsuccessful for four years until above information elicited. Feb. 2. 1939. Thuja
occidentalis. Temporary relief of pain. April 4. Variolinum. NO real benefit. May 29
and Aug. 13 Thuja occidentalis tried again. Very little help. Sept 18. Maland. Some
improvement for one month only. Nov. 13. Vaccininum 200c (1), 1M. (1), 10M. (1),
four-hourly. First month pain and nausea slightly decreased. Second month,
intense aggravations, but patient better in herself. Third month, general
improvement first fortnight. Then symptoms returning less severe. March 3, 1940.
Repeated Vaccinin. 200 (1), 1M. (1) 10M. (1), 4-hourly. April 1. Aggravations less
severe. On whole, better in herself. Whether this patient has the vitality to
maintain progress or not is still problematical.35
Under Malandrinum we read:
According to Jenner, the origin of cow-pox, is infection of the udders of cows by
contact with grass on which a horse infected with “Grease” has trodden. This
assertion is to some extent confirmed by the experience of homeopaths, who
have found in Malandrinum a very effectual protection against infection with
small-pox and against vaccination. Straube made provings of the 30th potency (H.
R., xv. 145; H. W., xxxv. 504). It has been used on inferential grounds with great
success in ill effects of vaccination (I have cured with it cases of unhealthy, dry,
rough skin remaining for years after vaccination); in small-pox, measles, and
impetigo. Burnett has cured with it a case of knock-knee in a child who was
constantly handling his penis.36
Reportedly some of the most brilliant homeopathic cures were tautopathic
cures. Stuart Close describes two remarkable cases:
I found him bleeding from the bitten finger, and from eyes, nose, ears, mouth,
rectum and urethra; pulse 110, small, wiry; respiration 40; temperature 105;
haggard expression; whole body bathed in hot perspiration; delirium.
This patient had had the regular routine treatment of whisky, quinine and
carbonate ammonia for ninety-six hours, when the attendants withdrew and
pronounced the case beyond the reach of medical aid. A marked characteristic
symptom was a mouldy smell of breath, with scarlet red tongue, and difficult
swallowing. Great sensitiveness of skin of right half of body, so much so that the
slightest touch would produce twitching of muscles of that side. I prescribed
Crotalus horridus, 30th trituration, 30 gr. in four ounces of water, a teaspoonful
every hour, until my return visit, twenty-four hours later, when I found marked
improvement.
Temperature normal; pulse full, soft and regular; delirium gone; saliva and urine
slightly tinged with blood; appetite returning, he having asked for food for the
first time since the accident. The medicine was continued for two more days,
when recovery was practically complete. 39
Clark also mentions that the adverse effects of medical x-rays and radiation
therapy were removed by X-ray and Radium bromatum:
Dieffenbach, who had been investigating Radium for ten years before he
published his pamphlet, records that as a result of former X-ray and Radium-ray
experiments one prover’s hands had, when the proving commenced, eczematous
eruptions, cracks, scaly excrescences, and wart-like outcroppings. After his
proving with 6x these gradually disappeared. This is confirmed by a case reported
to me by Mr. E. S. Pierrepont.
A girl employed in the X-ray Department of the hospital with which he is
connected developed dermatitis of the right hand and fingers. An ointment was
prescribed without benefit, and cracks appeared on the skin. Two doses of
Radium bromatum 30c were given, on Mr. Pierrepont’s suggestion, one in the
morning and one in the evening. The following day the patient came out in a rash,
which the matron mistook for measles, eyes watering, fingers very sore, and she
felt very ill. By the following day the rash had disappeared and she felt well. The
fingers were now better, and they got quite well, except that a sore feeling was
left after washing.
A noticeable feature of both Dieffenbach’s proving and mine was the
disappearance of small naevi, which is significant, seeing that the rays are used
for the destruction of naevi. Among the most successful local uses of Radium may
be mentioned cases of lupus, epithelioma, carcinoma of the cervix uteri, and
urethral carbuncle. That radium, like x-rays, can cause as well as cure cancer is on
record.
I have quoted a case (H. W., August 1923) in a practitioner who contracted
squamous-celled carcinoma from a careless handling of Radium tubes. Cases of
cure of skin cases with Radium in potencies are numerous. 40
Dewey reports on the use of the tautopathic method for the treatment of
allergies. He cites Hahnemann’s awareness of the individual differences in
sensitivity and susceptibility, that “all persons were not affected by a
medicine in an equally great degree” during proving. 41
Hahnemann had described “idiosyncrasies” that predisposed some to have
serious hypersensitivity reactions to foods and plants even without exhibiting
any other chronic illness:
Some persons are apt to faint from smell of roses and to fall into many other
morbid and sometimes dangerous states from partaking of mussels, crabs, and
fish roe, or from touching the leaves of some kinds of sumach. 42
Kent discussed how the susceptibility to drugs varied greatly between
individuals — cases of dangerous congestion after opium in some patients,
others developing “quininism” even from small doses of quinine. 43
While Hahnemann did not describe a treatment other than homeopathic for
these, homeopaths experimented with the tautopathic method by giving the
allergen in potentized form, often with success. Dewey reports about
homeopaths in the 1870s who treated food allergies with the potentized foods
themselves, having results in both treatment and prevention, or many
apparent cures of the specific sensitivity:
Dr. Samuel Swan, and Dr. Thomas Wildes of New York and Dr. P. P. Wells of
Brooklyn and many others in the latter “seventies” reported many cases of
supersensitiveness to various foods, among which was a case where common
garden celery when eaten produced itching, changing locality frequently and
other disagreeable symptoms. Apium graveolens (Celery) in a high potency
removed the condition and permitted the patient to ever afterwards eat celery
with no untoward effects.
People exist who cannot eat strawberries. These susceptible individuals suffer
from urticarial rashes, sometimes difficulty in breathing as if a weight were on
the chest. Potentized Fragaria vesica relieved at once. This was first advocated
perhaps by Dr. W. P. Wesselhoeft of Boston and amply verified by Drs. Swan, and
Wells. The writer used it successfully in a case having similar symptoms whenever
strawberries, of which she was most fond, were eaten. Fragaria vesica in a high
potency not only removed the condition, but so completely that the patient was
ever after able to eat strawberries without symptoms for the remainder of her
life, which ended some 30 years subsequent.
There are numerous cases of over susceptibility to Apis poisoning which is
remedied by taking Apis mellifica in minimum doses. Bee keepers and those who
handle bees are rendered immune, and do not mind or suffer from bee stings, nor
do they produce swellings or edema when the person is thus immunized.” 44
Apparently some patients recovered permanently from tautopathic
treatment alone, and no additional treatment such as constitutional
treatment is mentioned.
Isopathy would give raw cucumbers to a person made sick by eating cucumbers
and would make him worse. Homeopathy would give him Cucumis in a high
potency and not only cure the patient but also enable him to eat cucumbers with
no untoward symptoms. 48
This position avoided the controversy surrounding the tautopathic method.
The real controversy was about the method of selection of the remedy, not
the remedy’s action. This distinction was also made by J. Compton Burnett in
his famous remark:
I maintain that choosing the remedies according to the totality of the symptoms
is only one way of finding the right remedy; and, moreover, sometimes totally
inadequate.
You may find the right remedy once in a way according to the old doctrine of
signatures; and, even though so found, it acts homeopathically; the way of
choosing is poor and crude, but it is a way.
You may find the right remedy by organ-testing after the manner of Paracelsus,
and the remedy acts homeopathically although found that way.
You may find the right remedy purely hypothetically, after the manner of Von
Grauvogl and Schüssler, the mode of action remains the same, i.e., homeopathic.
You may use dynamized salt — Natrum muriaticum — to cure marine cachexia,
sea side neuralgia, sea-side headache, and the like, and still the action of the
remedy is homeopathic. 49
Objections and Controversy
Many homeopaths frowned on the use of the isopathic (tautopathic) method.
Some objected to prescription on the basis of the patient’s history or a cause.
This method was to them a deviation from “homeopathic” selection on the
basis of symptoms.
Isopathy is not homeopathy; we must keep this distinction ever before us.
Isopathy is identity; homoeopathy rests its whole case on the similarity, and in
the degree of its perfection we may be sure of the results. 50
One can’t help but wonder why the identical should not represent an increase
in perfection over the mere similar, even representing the simillimum, as
Hahnemann had observed.51
The controversy surrounding isopathy among homeopathic physicians was
often directed at the use of potentized drugs to treat diseases, “by name”
rather than by symptoms or “homeopathic” indications. They considered this
approach an allopathic approach. Many of these physicians had left the
allopathic school in favor of the homeopathic one and viewed as traitors
anyone in their midst who defected back to allopathy.
The opponents of tautopathy launched tirades against those who looked into
the isopathic innovations. Attacks were conducted ad hominem. They were
naming names:
Gross, whose homeopathic career has been distinguished by a marked propensity
for novelty-hunting, seems to have become at once deeply enamored of the
isopathic theory.
He says the simile is not exactly the right thing, and that for some time he has
been convinced that equalia equalibus or the isopathic principle is the correct
one, and that similia similibus or the homeopathic principle is only a makeshift or
indifferent apology for the other.52
Another verbal attack against a homeopathic colleague, the well-known
veterinary Professor Wilhelm Lux:
On the appearance of this book of master Lux’s, Dr. Hering, the original suggester
of the heresy, wrote a counterblast against poor Lux, and contended that in all
these remedial means there was no question of a deviation from the homeopathic
principle; that this was still homeopathy and not isopathy, and that the most that
could be said was that the curative agent was a simillimum, but certainly not an
equale or idem. He, like Hering, will not admit that the morbid product is an idem
but only a simillimum, and therefore the practice with these remarkable
medicaments is still homeopathy and not isopathy. 53
The very mention of the word isopathy incurred the wrath of some
homeopaths. Yet despite all the rhetoric, the only adverse effects the
detractors of tautopathy could cite from the method were political storms
resulting among various homeopathic organizations and especially for
individuals seeking recognition by the prestigious AIH Intercollegiate Council:
The gravest difficulties arose when Professors Pease and Sawyer promulgated the
use of high potencies of a drug to antidote possible effects of crude drugging in
the patient’s history. The empirical and routine use of nosodes, mercury, cigarette
smoke, and even semen to antidote possible “drug miasms” invoked the wrath of
the profession. Accusing the college of teaching ‘antidotalism’ and isopathy, a
clandestine sub-committee, including Drs. Copeland and James C. Wood, denied
Dunham recognition by the AIH Intercollegiate Council. 54
Apparently there is nothing new under the sun. The attacks against
homeopaths who dared to use remedies on causative rather than
homeopathic indications sometimes took on religious overtones and outright
defamation:
We have seen how the monstrous isopathic heresy for awhile seduced a number
of the flighty minds amongst us, and more recently we have seen a crowd of
respectable practitioners lending a willing ear to the vagaries of a lunatic
horsetrainer.55
Some of this explains why those practitioners who had experimented with
tautopathy and who had good reason to defend their brilliant results were
often very cautious, even apologetic, in presenting their views.
Kent who opposed the method even tried to rationalize the apparent success
of the tautopathic method with the claim that if it worked it must have been
the patient’s constitutional remedy:
We have seen that Rhus cures the patient of his sensitiveness to Rhus as well long
after as before he was poisoned by it. This is not Isopathy, as it was not Rhus that
was cured, but the patient, and it was simply pointed out to the intelligent
physician by the accidental poisoning wherein Rhus was pointed to as one of the
medicines that he is sensitive to; it being fully understood that the patient is
always highly sensitive to his needed medicine. This, therefore, is but a centering
of a complex of symptoms in a homeopathic problem.56
For fear of being excommunicated by their peers, many homeopaths during
the classical era would shun isopathy, let alone admit to have used the
method in their practice, with few exceptions.
Dr. Carleton is mistaken in his premise. Hahnemann does not condemn the use of
Psorinum, nor of any other drug, from any source whatever, so long as its
selection is based upon the Law of Similars, and it is given in potentiated form. He
declares, in the paragraph quoted, that the Psorinum is not used on the isopathic
principle, but because it is the simillimum. The action is based upon the
homeopathic principle. When we recognize a group of symptoms as portraying
and calling for the use of Arsenicum album, it is our duty to give Arsenicum album
in potentiated form. It makes no difference whether arsenic in crude form has
been given or not. But it may help us to a quicker solution of the problem to
ascertain that as a matter of fact crude arsenic has been given. 57
The paragraph in question in the above remark is, of course, the one we cited
above from Hahnemann’s Chronic Diseases. It has been cited in support of
tautopathy (isopathy) for more than a century. According to Hahnemann, the
“identical” (ταυτόν) when given in potency is no longer identical but the most
similar thing to the substance causing the disorder. This means it should be
the most homeopathic remedy – the simillimum. The paragraph reads as
follows:
Thus potentized and modified also, the itch substance (Psorinum) when taken is
no more an idem (same) with the crude original itch substance, but only a
simillimum (thing most similar). For between idem and simillimum there is no
intermediate for any one that can think; or in other words between idem and
simile only simillimum can be intermediate. Isopathic and aequale are equivocal
expressions, which if they should signify anything reliable can only signify
simillimum, because they are not idem (tauton, as it is termed.) 58
With the onset of industrialization that brought a massive increase in
exposure to allopathic drugs, environmental poisons, radiation and other
irritants, the need for the tautopathic methodology of antidoting these
artificially induced disorders became increasingly apparent to homeopaths.
Grimmer, a protégé of Kent wrote:
Surprisingly, only very trivial symptoms were produced by the provers, even after
making a renewed attempt by taking a fresh preparation. To rule out the
possibility of a defective preparation and to reconfirm that the symptoms,
produced by two of the victims, were definitely due to Parthenium, it was given in
6x and 30x to two of the victims on an isopathic basis. It was then observed that
the symptoms of the victims started disappearing. Under the circumstances it
was concluded that this particular drug was not producing more symptoms when
taken orally, but was producing symptoms when an individual came in contact
with the pollen and when the respiratory tract was affected by inhaling the
pollen. When grading the symptoms, this particular phenomenon was kept in
mind.60
It was not the purpose of this paper to examine in detail the reasons for the
peculiar objections to tautopathy. Among the most persistent objection was
the charge that tautopathy was not homeopathic, that it was a deviation
from homeopathy, in outright opposition to Hahnemann’s viewpoint that the
tautopathic potency was the simillimum.
Yet even in the modern era, we still encounter the same, almost habitual
rejection and a priori bias against the isopathic/tautopathic method implied
by the following discussion of a case of Agent Orange-induced lymphoma:
Have you had experience using isopathy in cases like this, or has anyone in the
audience had a positive outcome with a case like this, involving a clear poisoning
(diagnosed as Agent Orange-induced lymphoma)?
It’s an approach I think a lot of people use when they’re up against the wall,
without a better approach. And sometimes it works. I’ve had some cases,
involving the DPT vaccine for example. Others have used potentized penicillin,
cortisone, and so on. The idea of using potentized Agent Orange did come up for
me. But I’m very glad that I prescribed as I did. It’s not absolutely certain that
Agent Orange caused the lymphoma. But the VA felt it was the causative agent.
The man was massively exposed to it. He was cleaning out the vats every day and
it was all over him….
It’s interesting that Ceanothus, which is a remedy that was introduced long before
Agent Orange was even compounded, worked so beautifully for this case. To me, it
means that we don’t need to resort to isopathy in most cases. The remedies that
we have will work, even for these modern environmental toxicities. 61
Why say, “resort to isopathy”? The evidence presented over one hundred
years of use shows remarkable cures. It also shows that when tautopathy is
used, the constitutional remedies work better because it removes an obstacle
to cure. The obstacle in this case is the poisoning. The remedy most similar to
the poison is the simillimum to the case at that time — the potentized poison.
The evidence shows while the similis helps, the simillimum cures.
Conclusion
The record shows that classical homeopaths used tautopathy successfully to
remove syndromes produced by drugs, chemical poisons, animal and plant
poisons; allergic reactions; and even proving symptoms caused by
homeopathic remedies. Some homeopaths used the method to remove the
influence of drugs taken by the patient in the past, when this influence
interfered with or prevented the use of regular constitutional treatment long
after the drugs or poison had been discontinued.
The arguments against tautopathy were expressed with much rhetoric, but
fell short on facts. Most seem to be mere repetitions of tired old clichés
previously heard from others; some appear to be mere sophistry. Where
original formal arguments were presented, they constituted a
priori objections, without considering any evidence either against or in favor
of any clinical merit of the tautopathic methodology. In all cases presented
here and in many others reviewed but not presented, not one single objection
could be found that made mention or presented any evidence of failures or
lack of positive results, or of any harm or negative effects, from the
tautopathic method.
The literature review found enough clinical evidence to consider tautopathy a
serious potential adjunct treatment to homeopathy. In fact, this is what I
have found in my own practice with my own tautopathic experimentation
beginning around 1990. In some conditions, especially in the ever growing
epidemic of environmental and food allergies, anaphylactic reactions, acute
and chronic poisoning, adverse drug reactions and drug overdoses, insect
stings, animal bites, chronic pharmacogenic disorders, radiation poisoning,
radiation-induced injury, electrical injuries, including lightning injury,
chemical and electrosensitivity, drug and alcohol addiction and abuse, and to
counter environmental syndromes like microwave irradiation syndrome,
tautopathy promises to be an important strategy alongside conventional
homeopathic treatment.
I have additionally observed that aggravations during constitutional
treatment from past influence of medications and toxins can be removed
safely and rapidly with the tautopathic pharmacode. These aggravations can
also be avoided altogether with tautopathic pretreatment.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
45 Boericke W. Materia Medica with Repertory, Boericke & Tafel, 9th Ed., 1927.
46 Dewey WA. Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics, Boericke & Tafel, 1901.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
57 Close S. Hahnemannian Advocate, “What is the Law of Cure,” 1896, Vol.
35, Chicago, P. 10.