HIGHEST IDEAL OF CURE

(Organon of Medicine, Sec. 2)

In the beginning of Organon Hahnemann gives an idea about the very object of the physician which is expressed as the “Mission of the Physician”. When the objective of the physician has thus been fixed, we should have a very clean concept of what constitute the cure of a disease. Regarding this Hahnemann expressed his idea as follows:

“The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle, permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, most harmless way, on easily comprehen­sible principles” (sec. 2).

1. Rapid

   The cure of disease should be quick or speedy because

• Longer the suffering, more chances of tissue damage. And more the tissue changes, the more incurable the disease becomes.
• Disease is suffering. The sooner a person relieved of his suffer­ing better for him.

          It is a relative term which depends upon the nature of the disease. In case of acute diseases, which are self-limiting, having a definite course must be cured before they run their course acute cases should be aborted. But chronic disease will require more time as they are deep seated and exist from quite a long time.

2. Gentle

The procedure adopted to effect a cure should be gentle or mild. The treatment should not give much suffering to the patient because a diseased man is already suffering.

 During Hahnemann’s time leeching, blistering, purgation, hasty surgical measures, or other torturesome practices were in use. To prevent sep­sis a wounded limb was deeped in boiling oil or tar and the agony of the patient was made worse. It was often in doubt whether the patient died of the disease or of the treatment adopted.

3. Permanent restoration of the health:

 It means there must not be any relapse of the disease. After treatment, cure must be permanent. Mere removal of symptoms by any means is not cure in the true sense of the word. Palliation or suppression

of the suffering of the patient should not be our aim.

4. Removal and annihilation of the disease:

A disease consists of many symptoms. Some symptoms are more troublesome, and some are less troublesome. So, we should not be satisfied only by removing the more troublesome symptoms. The disease must be cured in its entirety. Because every symptom indicates a deviation from the state of normal health. Hence every symptom must be removed in order to make the desirable cure.

of many symptoms. Some symptoms are more troublesome, and some are less troublesome. So, we should not be satisfied only by removing the more troublesome symptoms. The disease must be cured in its entirety. Because every symptom indicates a deviation from the state of normal health. Hence every symptom must be removed in order to make the desirable cure.

If the removal of symptoms is not followed by a restoration to health, it cannot be called a cure. We learned in sec. 1 that the sole duty of the physician is to cure the sick. Therefore, it is not his duty merely to remove the symptoms, to change the aspects of the symptoms, the appearance of disease image, imagining that he has thereby established order. There should be a corresponding inward im­provement whenever an outward symptom has been caused to disap­pear and this will be true whenever disease has been displaced by order according to Hering’s law of cure.

5. Shortest

It is a relative term which depends upon the selection of the most similar remedy. When a medicine is administered based on the totality of symptoms, the disease is expected to be soon cured. This straight-forward approach to treatment is both time-saving and preferable.

6. Reliable

When the disease symptoms go away following “Hering’s law”, we may be sure that the disease will be finally cured. The symptoms should go away from above downward, from within outward, from centre to periphery, from more important to less important organ, and in the reverse order of their coming, that is, symptom coming last goes first.

7. Harmless

Cure should be effected in the most harmless way. The treatment should have no side-effects. A mode of treatment which causes the dam­age of heart in order to cure a simple fever cannot be preferred as an ideal one.

8. On easily comprehensible principles

The mode of treatment must be transparent and easily understood. Therapeutic practice must be based not on guess-, work, empiricism but on fixed principles which are simple and intelligible. Hence, a system of medicine should be based on nature’s laws, to be true, to be simple, to be easily understood.

   There was no definite law of prescribing for the sick. The practice of medicine was chaotic. Hahnemann was the first who per­ceived that the practice of medicine to be successful must be guided by law. The science of medicine must be built on a true foundation.

Contributor- Dr. Manju Valesha