Homeopathic Pharmacy (Second Edition): Theory and Practice
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First edition 1997 Second edition 2006 ISBN 0 443 10160 4 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Note Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our knowledge, changes in practice, treatment and drug therapy may become necessary or appropriate. Readers are advised to check the most current information provided (i) on procedures featured or (ii) by the manufacturer of each product to be administered, to verify the recommended dose or formula, the method and duration of administration, and contraindications. It is the responsibility of the practitioner, relying on their own experience and knowledge of the patient, to make diagnoses, to determine dosages and the best treatment for each individual patient, and to take all appropriate safety precautions. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising out of or related to any use of the material contained in this book. The Publisher Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www.elsevier.com | www.bookaid.org | www.sabre.org The publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests Printed in China Dedication This book is for Calum, Eilidh, Tara and Alex. For Elsevier: Commissioning editor: Karen Morley Development editor: Louise Allsop Project manager: Emma Riley Design direction: Jayne Jones F10160-FM.qxd 11/19/05 4:51 PM Page vii INTRODUCTION TO CAM VII Foreword to the first edition Forewords to textbooks are usually written by the author or by an eminent supporter of the author’s viewpoint. How, then, do you reply to someone who asks you to write a foreword to one of his books, knowing full well that the subject matter is that which occasioned a long, disputative corre- spondence in a learned journal? That you are flattered? That he has a funny sense of humour? In fact, you babble, “Yes, delighted, of course, only too pleased”, and then you fret about what you have got yourself into. (Dr Kayne certainly has a sense of humour, as is evidenced by his inclusion on Box 4.1 on page 47 of ‘P.C. Computeris’. This invitation could well be his revenge for the fact that my letter was the last one published in our long- running sequence.) In spite of Hahnemann’s dislike for the apothecaries of his time, it is understandable that some pharmacists now take an active interest in homoeopathy. Pharmacists of a certain age are well acquainted with the cul- tivation, preparation, action and uses of crude drugs and, although phar- macognosy (the study of medicinal plants) is no longer an important part of the pharmacy degree course, younger pharmacists are taking an interest in the field of naturally occurring medicines. This has been an area of exper- tise of the apothecary since antiquity when materials were drawn from all over the Old World, many of them travelling along the Spice Road from the East. Supply was necessarily sporadic and transport incredibly difficult so it is little wonder that drugs such as cardamom, myrrh, cinnamon, opium and rheum were valued on a par with precious metals. Few people could afford these exotica, nor were they widely available; consequently, herbals made much of native plants, the worts, belladonna, ergot, willow, feverfew and dandelion being only a tiny fraction of a comprehensive list of empirical treatments. The range available was further widened by imports from the New World and with the inclusion of metals and minerals. The British con- tribution was not without the bizarre since the Pharmacopaeia Londonensis, 1684, included moss scraped from a human skull (mucus crani humani); a rarity of unrecorded effect but one possibly contaminated with, dare I say it, subtherapeutic amounts of penicillin. By the 18th century, the natural armamentarium was largely in place, human anatomy was extensively charted, and a start was being made towards an understanding of physiology. The challenge to surgeons, apothe- caries and doctors was then to rationalise their knowledge and develop F10160-FM.qxd 11/19/05 4:51 PM Page viii VIII FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION effective treatments. Even allowing for the imperfect knowledge of the time, some of the fashionable 18th and 19th century treatments, such as emetics, purges and bleeding, were baseless and of heroic proportions. Others were honest attempts to harness new facts with varying degrees of success. Lavoiser’s experiments with oxygen gave rise to several ‘pneumatic’ theo- ries, Jenner’s vaccination came close to treating ‘like with like’, and Lister’s use of phenols and cresols is credited with being the basis for the late 19th century popular treatment of croup and whooping cough in children, where the unfortunate infant was held in fumes rising from one of the tar boilers then used for street repair or shipyard caulking. Hahnemann’s theories arose in this milieu and, whereas many of the other fashions in treatment evolved and faded, homeopathy persists. In the light of these changes, where does homoeopathy stand today? Both homoeopaths and allopaths can live com- fortably with the use of natural medicines, herbal and inorganic, as proven agents in the treatment of symptoms and disease. It is certainly possible to accommodate the hypothesis of ‘like treats like’ as an empirically estab- lished approach to treatment. Modern practitioners would be brave indeed if they adopted a narrow, blinkered view of any condition presented by any patient, and this is underlined by the fact that government agencies and health insurers throughout the world are now increasingly demanding defined quality of outcome for all the treatments for which they pay. In doing so, these agencies are seeking a cost-efficient way of attaining the World Health Organization definition of health which Steven quotes later but which bears repetition here: ‘A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease’ Best practice in health care has always tended towards consideration of the patient’s circumstances as well as of the condition and, clearly, this ‘holistic’ attitude to care is now being adopted so enthusiastically that it is being made a condition of contract for practitioners. Thus, three of the bases of homeopathy are commonly accepted which only leaves the contentious question of dilution. To make a reasoned decision on this requires an open mind, a preparedness to consider all the arguments. Steven Kayne has provided a wealth of well-documented infor- mation to enable you to reach your own conclusions. Steven and I obviously have divergent views on this topic but, having said that, I have always believed that having faith in the practitioner and in the treatment takes patients half way to winning the battle for health. I.M.C. 1997. F10160-FM.qxd 11/19/05 4:51 PM Page ix INTRODUCTION TO CAM IX Foreword to the second edition It says much for the public thirst for information on health matters that Dr Kayne has brought forth a new edition of his original Introduction and Handbook. As humorous as he is erudite, Steven has sought to confuse me again by moving my favourite item ‘P.C. Computeris’ from the above quoted p 47 to Box 4.1 on page 89. Readers will no doubt be as relieved as I am to find that he continues to recommend the antidotes to this preparation, namely Maltus singlus major and Vinum rubrum, in allopathic form. The new edition is much expanded but remains distinctly user friendly. The change in title to Homeopathic Pharmacy – Theory and Practice is no mere cosmetic change but denotes a determined attempt to consider both the educational and the research aspects of homoeopathy in detail. This is timely given the re-ignition of the debate on efficacy fired by the work of Aljing Shang et al. as reported in Lancet (26.8.05). Indeed, Steven goes so far as to seek valid ‘gold standard’ alternatives to existing clinical trial concepts. Whether this approach will ever bridge the gap between the entrenched positions of the protagonists in the dilution debate remains to be seen but it is a route worthy of scientific exploration. I.M.C. September 2005. F10160-FM.qxd 11/19/05 4:51 PM Page xi INTRODUCTION TO CAM XI About the author Steven B. Kayne practised in Glasgow, UK, as a Community Pharmacist with an interest in homeopathy and other complementary disciplines for more than 30 years. He served terms on the councils of the British Homeopathic Association and the Faculty of Homeopathy and was the first Pharmacy Dean of the Faculty from 1999 to 2003.