Tobacco

Review

This book review is reprinted from Volume 27, Number 2, March/April 2007 edition of Homeopathy Today with the permission of the National Center for Homeopathy

Reviewed by Bonnie Carpenter, EdD, RSHom (NA), CCH

This scholarly work by Richard Pitt introduces itself as a modern proving of Nicotiana rustica, one of two cultivated species of tobacco (the other being Nicotiana tabacum, the source for the well-known homeopathic remedy, Tabacum). Yet the information provided in this fascinating books reaches far beyond proving symptoms.

The author begins by providing us with "the extraordinary history of the use of tobacco by human beings." He describes tobacco as a member of the Solanaceae family of plants, other members of which include the tomato, potato, and "darker" plants such as datura (Stramonium) and deadly nightshade (Belladonna). He explores in detail the polarity of such remedies: light and dark, conscious and unconscious, good and evil. He thoroughly examines the cultural and historical significance of tobacco as well as how it has been used-from medicine to abused substance to spiritual rituals. Within this description, he also weaves in his belief about homeopathic provings being "one way of experiencing the reality of the universe beyond the immediate human one, while signifying our connection to it."

According to Richard, Nicotiana rustica is the original form of tobacco used by Native Americans in their spiritual practices. Various tribes still raise it today according to traditional methods and smoke it as part of their sacred heritage. He contrasts Nicotiana rustica with the commercially cultivated Nicotiana tabacum, which he feels has been domesticated as a money crop and has thus lost its connection to the spiritual. Before delving into the proving symptoms of Nicotiana rustica, he discusses themes of homeopathic remedies prepared from drug substances such as Opium, Coca, and Cannabis indica and compares and contrasts these with Tabacum and Nicotiana rustica.

He then goes on to list all the symptoms elicited in the proving of Nicotiana rustica, sorted by category, and to discuss the themes that emerged. Interestingly, he notes that the "heightened state" of tobacco was seen more in provers of Nicotiana rustica, while Tabacum provers exhibited more of the sedative effect of using tobacco. He finishes the book with a Tabacum case.

The only chapter that left me wanting more information was the description of the Tabacum case. After the symptoms of the patient are listed and described as meeting criteria for prescribing the remedy Tabacum, no further information is given. Did Richard prescribe Nicotiana rustica to the patient? If so, what potency did he give and what was the outcome? After all the wonderful information provided in this book, the end was a cliffhanger. I want to know how it turned out!

I would recommend this book to practitioners. Its wealth of detail adds to our knowledge of tobacco as a remedy and also gives us a model of a carefully monitored proving. Richard Pitt's dedication to furthering homeopathy and to "truth-seeking" is evident in every page of this meticulously researched book.

This book review is reprinted from The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths.

Reviewed by Francis Treuherz

The main subject of this book is Nicotiana rustica, the real tobacco from which we were all diverted in the cause of commercial exploitation and addiction. Here is a classic modern proving, preceded by very readable literary, historical, social and cultural essays about tobacco.

What this book is not: do not read it for help in overcoming addiction, or facing life when the only place you can smoke is outside in the rain, and it is not about Tabacum, which is a different remedy, although of course there are comparisons. What we have at last is the discovery of tobacco as a shamanistic, mind-altering substance, which can now take its place in the canon of homeopathic remedies alongside Cannabis and Anhalonium. Richard Pitt has opened up the probability that tobacco can at last become a holistic therapeutic medicine, and not just a stopper for the nausea of travel or pregnancy. We can understand better the colonial, imperial and commercial agendas that led to the spread of manufactured tobacco.

Richard Pitt studied homeopathy in England at the College of Homeopathy in the early 1980s, and became a registered member of the Society of Homeopaths. I even recall seeing him fire-eating and juggling at a conference cabaret. He travelled to the west coast of America where he found his space not only in practice, but also as director of the Pacific Academy of Homeopathy and the prime mover for standard process of certification for homeopaths of all backgrounds in North America. This culminated in a presentation of the Henry N Williams award for services to the homeopathic community, rather like our Fellowship, but perhaps even bigger. He has topped this by reviving the defunct Journal of the California Homeopathic Medical Society, and now conducting and publishing this proving.

There has been a tendency to rather spartan provings with the time tabled list of who experienced what, provings by numbers. These lists are all here, but they are enhanced by a translation into repertory order on the one hand, and comparative materia medica and themes on the other. Nicotiana rustica is compared for example with other Solanaciae, and with remedies that are affected by tobacco, like Caladium and Spigelia and with raptor bird remedies. There is an interesting case.

This is more than a good cigar or a good proving, it is a good read. One could say that Richard Pitt has breathed new life into tobacco.