Materia Medica Viva Volume 1

Review

This book review is reprinted from the New England Journal of Homeopathy with the permission of Amy Rothenberg, ND, DHANP.

Homeopathy is undergoing a major rebirth, and in that process there is the coming to life of many new and wonderful resources for student and doctor alike. During the middle years of this century, there was a drought of new information in homeopathy, reflecting a long pause in our growth and development. Happily, we are beyond that now with a growing group of homeopaths who have extensive experience and are able to articulately share their knowledge and expertise. We will focus this column on those books which will thankfully be moving homeopathy into the twenty-first century. Ed.

Judging by the recently published first volume, "Viva" is an apt description of George Vithoulkas' new materia medica. At long last, we are being presented with reliably written information on remedies as George Vithoulkas has come to understand them through over thirty years of prescribing, supervising, and teaching.

Each entry is a well-balanced combination depicting his trademark central image, or "essence," listed under "Essential Features," and listing the most important symptoms needed to recognize and to confirm the remedy. Basic information on nomenclature, pharmacology, toxicology, and physiological action are all included along with cured cases culled from other authors wherever possible. It is at once a very readable and detailed accounting.

In his introduction, Vithoulkas has cautioned in bold type: "This information should not be even remotely considered as the final word." Naturally, we must accept this fact because homeopathy is a continually evolving process where new information and various perspectives grow naturally over time. Yet, it is tempting to say that reading through the entries of the Materia Medica Viva is like absorbing some of the best aspects of Kent, Nash, Clark, and Boericke rolled into one.

The author himself might feel a slight blush to have the book so described, but it seems clear that it is designed to provide a general remedy picture drawn on personal experience (as Kent), be readable and give keynotes (similar to Nash), mention the most closely related clinical syndromes (like Clark), and list the major symptoms (consistent with Boericke).

The Materia Medica Viva was also written with the entry-level student of homeopathy in mind. Vithoulkas suggests that the "Essential Features" section will elucidate the individual character of each remedy thus making it relatively easy to recognize the remedy in practice. The student can therefore endeavor to learn and to retain the image set forth in this section without being both overwhelmed and confused by the amount of raw symptoms.

An interesting touch that reinforces this perspective is the variation in type size. The "Essential Features" and "Keynotes" are printed in a larger 12 point, while all the other sections are in 10 point. Particularly noteworthy information is emphasized with bold type.

No doubt the entire materia medica is going to be extensive in scope and slow to appear on the shelves. The twenty-six remedies appearing in this volume make it only half way through the first letter of the alphabet. Of these, a few such as Aconite and Allium Cepa are known to even the most casual student. Some, like Alumina, Ambra Grisea, or Agaricus are well known to most prescribers, and have a fairly fully developed symptomatology. Most can safely be called "small remedies" which, although found in the classical materia medicas, are infrequently used clinically and have a particular clinical picture for which they are appropriate. This group includes remedies such as Abies nigra, Ailanthus and Aletris farinosa.

Finally, there is a group of remedies, which includes Abelmoschus, Acetanilidum, and Adrenalin, that are relatively recent additions to the materia medica, and as such, do not appear in much of the classical literature. For example, a search for Abelmoschus in ReferenceWorks shows that it is mentioned only in O. Julian's New Materia Medica.

It turns out that this little known remedy, which happens to be the first entry in the book, is quite an intriguing one. Vithoulkas introduces us to it as "a remedy with lots of fears; as a consequence it is often confused with such remedies as Phosphorus, Calcarea carbonica or Crotalus cascavella." Although there is a great variety in the types of fears Abelmoschus can have, it seems that they are particularly focused on "poisonous creatures" and insects. Just the fact that Vithoulkas has made use of remedies like Abelmoschus is a tribute to the depth of his experience and knowledge. That he now is giving us insight into his understanding of them will be a significant aid to any student of homeopathy.

Any impatience felt while waiting for subsequent volumes should be tempered by two factors. First, if the entire work were to be published at one time, the onslaught of information would be so overwhelming as to discourage all but the most fanatical students from absorbing it. This more leisurely pace will offer everyone the chance to digest bit by bit. Second, the enormity of the project and the quality of the actual book itself (the binding, paper, printing, etc.) has led to a fairly hefty retail cost. Materia Medica Viva will be much more affordable on a piecemeal basis.

This is the first look at an immense project which has enlisted the efforts of a team of his most capable students. As we look forward to the publication of each successive volume, our indebtedness to perhaps the greatest homeopath of this era and those who have been so generous with their time and energy in assisting him will certainly grow.

New England Journal of Homeopathy Volume 2 Number 3
Summer / Fall 1993

This book review is reprinted with the permission of the National Center for Homeopathy

Reviewed by Richard Moskowitz, MD, DHt

This is the one we've been waiting for, at least the first installment, and it's splendid although seeing the finished product also helps me understand why it took the author so many years to get it out, and why, alas, he will never finish it.

I do not hesitate to say that George Vithoulkas is one of the very greatest homeopaths who have ever lived, and I dare say that few who have heard him or studied with him over the years would disagree. In particular, the incomparable depth and breadth of his understanding of remedies, and his rare gift for discovering their relevance to the issues of contemporary life, have opened up new dimensions of materia medica study only dimly hinted at before him. His recognition of distinctive remedy "essences" or themes capable of organic development over time yields not only masses of new information but also a whole new way of "seeing" patients that nobody else has articulated so clearly or applied in such a systematic fashion. And, not least, his inspiration of a whole generation of classical homeopaths throughout the world has made it possible to create a thoroughly contemporary materia medica, to build upon the contributions of the older masters a more inclusive and relevant literature for our own time.

At least since the mid-1970's, many of his students have been asking him to write down for posterity and in a more systematic fashion the tantalizing bits of materia medica he presents at his seminars. At first such requests made little headway against his evasive, almost mystical preference for personal, face-to-face transmission. In 1982, 1 transcribed more or less verbatim several remedy pictures from the seminar in Alonissos, Greece, interpolating only in a few places where my notes were sketchy or his meaning seemed unclear. Some months later he wrote back that what he had presented to us was only a part of the truth and that therefore he could not subscribe to any finite, written rendition of it. But this Platonic riddle of how to give permanent written form to living truths inescapably partial and incomplete is precisely the challenge of the writer's craft, never to be mastered by reasoning alone. I tried in vain to reassure him that all we needed was such relative truth as he'd already given us in good measure.

In the mid-1980's, with several pirated versions of his lecture notes already in circulation, he reluctantly decided to produce a materia medica after all, and enlisted the help of George Guess, MD, and several others on the project. I assumed that what he had in mind was simply a more complete version of his lectures past and future, including small remedies not yet covered, with enough keynotes and particulars to locate and trace out the essential themes in his characteristic style. A brief introduction would have sufficed to explain how living materia medica pictures must continually evolve and be retouched in the light of new information and experience.

What Volume 1 gives us is much more than this, indeed so much more that I fear his own unique and indispensable contribution will be obscured by the scholarly apparatus that he has created to substantiate it, almost all of which is already available in other texts. Possibly to refute both Kunzli's charge that his essences are overly mentalized (1), and Eizayaga's that they are "illuminist" fantasies of his own imagination (2), he has been needlessly and indeed obsessively careful to situate them in and wherever possible to derive them from the detailed information of the classical writers.

Above all, as if to satisfy his own scruples against partiality and impermanence, he has crammed in as much detailed information about each remedy as possible, resulting in a reference of encyclopedic proportions, worthy of comparison with Clarke's monumental Dictionary of Materia Medica. Thus each remedy portrait begins with its botanical name or chemical composition, geographical distribution, toxicological information, and actual cases of overdose or poisoning where possible. Vithoulkas' conception of the remedy as a whole is presented in a section entitled "The Essential Features," with the familiar flavor and style of his seminar presentations. The next, entitled "Generalities and Keynotes," lists more specific and detailed characteristics, both generals and particulars, in the traditional sequence of Kent's Repertory.

Concluding with a summary of clinical applications, remedy relationships, and other technical information (e.g., dosage), he also appends, wherever possible, a number of cured cases from the older literature, compiled by the indefatigable Paul Herscu, ND, omitting his own (Vithoulkas') cases in order to publish them separately at a later date. This editorial decision is most disappointing, since it is primarily through his own clinical experience, his own unique way of understanding patients, that his profoundly enriched and often strikingly original remedy interpretations are developed and constructed. Based on older, more limited conceptions the cases seldom give any hint of the evolution in the master's own thought.

I have no wish to sound ungrateful, because what we do have is truly magnificent, indeed far beyond anything I imagined, namely, an authoritative reference text of the homeopathic pharmacopoeia from the classical viewpoint that will undoubtedly last for generations, incorporating the master's own vision of what a comprehensive materia medica should look like.

Yet it is this same obsession for permanence and completeness that will almost certainly prevent him from finishing it. Volume 1, with over 250 pages of text, covers 26 remedies, beginning with Abelmoschus and ending with Ambrosia artemisiae folia, not even halfway through the A's. At this rate, even if all ten projected volumes are actually published, we can expect to be left hanging somewhere between Fraxinus and Gambogia.

Vithoulkas himself is very candid and realistic about the prodigious efforts required to complete such a project. At the end of his Introduction, he appeals to homeopathic prescribers all over the world to contribute their own cases to a collective materia medica under his editorship, in much the same way that Kent's magnificent Repertory was assembled by the old master's students under his supervision. But does that mean that the publication of subsequent volumes will be delayed still further until his students are prepared to take up the challenge?

Personally, I prefer to hope that, with limited time and energy at his disposal, he will concentrate on setting down his own unique experience of as many remedies as possible in a more personal style, more in the spirit, say, of Nash's Leaders in Homeopathic Therapeutics, rather than squandering so much of himself on details already available elsewhere. Delegating his students to compile toxicological data, particular symptoms, and other reference material would indeed free him to concentrate on "Essential Features" and whatever leading "Generalities and Keynotes" and case vignettes from his own experience he would need to finish his own singular contribution in his own lifetime. In future years, his students would then be ideally positioned to move on to still other remedies that Vithoulkas himself had insufficient experience with to write about.

Vithoulkas' incomparable experience and understanding of remedies are evident on every page, and will delight the serious reader, whether novice or expert.

For the present, we can learn some useful things about his methodology, and indeed about materia medica study in general, by comparing what Vithoulkas says about the remedies with what was already available to him in the literature. In some cases, such as Alumina silicata or Ailanthus the details are taken almost entirely from other sources, which he usually is careful to acknowledge. With these remedies, most of them much less well known, his own originality lies mainly in his arrangement and relative emphasis of these, and thus, once again, in his own clinical experience, his ability to discern the same patterns or themes in even broader and deeper applications, until the themes themselves are transformed. Under these circumstances, the high degree of congruence between his and older accounts is actually very reassuring.

In other cases, such as Aethusa or Allium sativum, new themes have been added, and whole new areas of clinical exploration opened up, such that what had long been regarded as small or acute remedies of very limited application have been greatly enriched and upgraded in status by adding a significant chronic dimension. Even for relatively familiar ones like Alumina and Agaricus, a wealth of living detail has been added, often with characteristic vignettes and typical phrasings, which are of great help to the student. Vithoulkas' incomparable experience and understanding of remedies are evident on every page, and will delight the serious reader, whether novice or expert.

The book is handsomely produced, well edited, and generally readable, thorough, and scholarly in tone. Unfortunately it is also very expensive, and the thought of having to shell out for nine more volumes quite daunting. A paperback and/or Indian edition is both mandatory and inevitable; and an abridged version, including the "Essential Features" and "Generalities and Keynotes," without the particulars, cases, toxicology, etc., seems like a good idea. But, in whatever format, no serious student will want to miss it.

NOTES:
1. Kunzli, J., Impressions on Homeopathy in the United States,"
JAIH 75:42, March 1982.
2. Eizayaga, F., "The Promise of Homeopathy" and "Infectious
Diseases," NCH Annual Conference, April 19-20,1985,
Washington, DC (unpublished lectures).

HOMEOPATHY TODAY FEBRUARY 1994

This book review is reprinted with the permission of the International Foundation for Homeopathy

Reviewed by Dean Crothers, MD

George Vithoulkas' long-awaited Materia Medica Viva (Volume 1) has been published at last. Volume I covers 26 remedies: Abelmoschus, Abies canadensis, Abies nigra, Abrotanum, Absinthium, Acalypha indica, Acetanilidum, Aceticum acidum, Aconitum, Actea spicata, Adonis, Adrenalin, Aesculus hippocastanum, Aethusa, Agaricus, Agnus castus, Ailanthus, Aletris, Allium cepa, Allium sativum, Aloe, Alumen, Alumina, Alumina silicata, Ambra grisea, Ambrosia. I have mixed feelings about this book. Now that I have seen it, and read much of it, I can strongly recommend it, though with George Vithoulkas' reputation it probably does not need my recommendation.

This book is a beautifully written, practical guide to the psychological pathology of many of these remedies, and to the guiding characteristics of the others. It is one of the few books on materia medica which I have enjoyed reading like a book rather than using only as a reference for study. Dr. George Guess, through dedication and hard work, did an outstanding editing job.

That is the positive side, and it cannot be overstated. The reason for mixed feelings is that it represents only 26 remedies and I have been waiting for this book for 15 years! I appreciate that compiling the material and writing such a volume is a huge task, but it is discouraging to contemplate how long we will have to, wait for the next eleven volumes. I hope that we can convince George of the importance of this work and get him to put the remaining volumes on a top priority.

The following is drawn from a press release which arrived with my review copy of this wonderful book: Those who are familiar with Vithoulkas' "Essences" are well aware of the unique contribution his observations provide to our growing knowledge of materia medica. This volume continues and expands his previous work, available to date only as lecture notes of "stolen essences."

Vithoulkas enlarges upon the psychological profiles of many of the above remedies with an unrivaled clarity, yet the relative simplicity of his descriptions enables the main characteristics of each remedy to imprint themselves upon the mind of the reader. Here is but one example, three paragraphs taken from the chapter on Ailanthus: "The memory deteriorates rapidly. They forget what happened yesterday; they do not recognize familiar Persons; they forget what they have just said. The past events are forgotten. Past events are forgotten or remembered as belonging to someone else, or as matters read. It is a remedy which should be remembered in cases of Alzheimer's disease when the patient has an appearance similar to that of Ailanthus and high blood pressure. Their senses, like their memory, become compromised, lacking acuteness. One will notice anxiety reflected it the faces of such patients; their's is an obvious distress.

"They may want to weep all the time, apparently for no reason, though in actuality their acute and distressed awareness of their mental deterioration and their confusion provokes these excesses. Eventually they succumb to either depression or apathy, with constant sighing. One must guard against reflexively giving Ignatia in cases of grief coupled with sighing, for other remedies, like Ailanthus, also display sighing after grief- however, in Order to justifiably prescribe Ailanthus its essential characteristics should be present the mental picture, the stupefaction of the brain, the dark redness of the face, the fullness in the head, etc."

It is important for the student of homeopathy to realize the particular effect that each remedy has upon the different systems or organs of the body, and prescribe accordingly. This remedy exerts a specific effect upon the brain which the student of homeopathy must perceive clearly before he can prescribe it to the sick with some accuracy." For some of the very small remedies, lacking in psychological information, Vithoulkas gives us prescribing indications which help to distinguish between them in the clinical setting. Each chapter is divided into sections-Pharmacopeia, Physiological Action, Toxicology, Essential Features, Generalities, Review of Systems, Causation, Clinical (conditions treatable by the remedy), Relationships, Antidotes, Dosage, Cases (cured cases taken from the existing literature). Not every chapter contains all of these sections. Everyone will want to read the Essential Features of each remedy. This is the material which has been so long awaited, and is Vithoulkas' unique contribution to homeopathy.

From a physical standpoint this book is of quality construction. It is a very attractive, hardcover book which will enhance the appearance of your book shelf. It is a gem, and I want more.

This book review is reprinted with permission from Homeopathic Links.

Those who are familiar with Vithoulkas "Essences" are well aware of the unique contribution his observations provide to our growing knowledge of materia medica. This volume continues and expands his previous work, available to date only as lecture notes of "Stolen Essences". Vithoulkas enlarges upon the psychological profiles of the remedies with an unrivalled clarity and thoroughness, yet the relative simplicity of his descriptions enables the main characteristics of each remedy to imprint themselves upon the mind of the reader. In those instances where psychological information about a small remedy is still sparse, Vithoulkas very succinctly crystallises the principle prescribing indications of the remedy based upon his considerable experience.

Each chapter, for the most part, has the following structure: Pharmacopoeia, Physiological Action, Toxicology (the symptoms listed here rather resemble proving- symptoms, thus the title being misleading), Essential Features, Generalities, Review of Systems (similar to Clarke's symptom review organised by bodily sections), Causation, Clinical conditions addressed by the remedy, Relationships, Antidotes, Dosage, Cases (cured cases taken from existing literature). The gemstones of the book are his "Essential Features" of each remedy.

Here is an example from Ailanthus:
The memory deteriorates rapidly. They forget what happened yesterday: they do not recognise familiar persons; they forget what they have just said. All past events are forgotten. Past events are forgotten or remembered as belonging to someone else, or as matters read. It is a remedy which should be remembered in cases of Alzheimer's disease when the patient has an appearance similar to that of Ailanthus and high blood pressure. Their senses, like their memory, become compromised, lacking acuteness. One will notice anxiety reflected in the faces of such patients; theirs is an obvious distress.

"They may want to weep all the time, apparently for no reason, though in actuality the acute and distressed awareness of their mental deterioration and their confusion provokes these excesses. Eventually they succumb to either depression or apathy, with constant sighing. One must guard against reflexively giving Ignatia in cases of grief coupled with sighing, for other remedies, like Ailanthus, also display sighing after grief: To justifiably prescribe Ailanthus its essential characteristics should be present - the mental picture, the stupefaction of the brain, the dark redness of the face, the fullness in the head, etc."

"It is important for the student of homeopathy to realise the particular effect that each remedy has upon the different systems or organs of the body, and prescribe accordingly. This remedy exerts a specific effect upon the brain which the student of homeopathy must perceive clearly before he can prescribe it to the sick with some accuracy."

One disappointment is Vithoulkas decision not to include many of his own cured cases in the text. These will be published later in a book of cured cases, wherein each case will be presented as a case solving puzzle. Furthermore, strict academics will find that the references provided in this volume are inadequate to qualify it as a scholarly work; nonetheless, as a practical work, this book is essential.

Homoeopathic Links - Spring 1993