It must be remembered that in cases of well-established illnesses of long-standing such as asthma and epilepsy, it is not right to prescribe a Preface 7 casual prescription. Instead, one must see the patient and have a detailed discussion with him or her to find out about the illness as well as the constitution of the person in order to reach the constitutional remedy.
Both must match as precisely as possible. In my experience, many a time, the patient did not respond to the standard well known prescription but after a detailed personal examination of the patient, including his state of mind, the prescription given worked wonderfully well. For example, patients of epilepsy experience auras of a different nature
before the actual attack. One such patient used to experience loud, unbearable noises and would not go to sleep out of fear. He felt as if his head and mind were squeezed in a vice. Based on his state of mind, I prescribed Cactus and it worked wonders. He started to sleep normally and the epileptic seizures also disappeared. Ironically, Cactus is not
mentioned amongst the remedies for epilepsy. It is important that all such patients be observed for at least a few days. If a rush of blood to the head is noted and the blood pressure rises, Cactus would be the ideal medication.
Similarly, one should look for typical signs and symptoms of the illness before prescribing. In diseases of the gall bladder, a number of medications are useful. Once, I tried almost all of them on a gall bladder patient, but none worked. After a personal examination of the patient, I found that he was a nervous, psychic wreck. I gave him Sepia and he got
better – the pain totally disappeared! In all cases of chronic illnesses, the patient should be studied in detail. On another occasion, I gave Aconite and Belladonna to a kidney patient in view of the acute nature of the sickness but it simply did not work. Apparently, I had overlooked the constitution of the patient.
Belladonna and Aconite would have worked if heat had been making him worse and if cold offered him relief. However, that particular patient felt worse with cold baths. As soon as I gave him Magnesia Phosphoricum and Colocynth, he immediately got better. There are no quick fixes in Homoeopathy. One should get into the habit of forgetting the disease for a moment and give due attention to the individual symptoms and constitution of the patient. A list of hot and cold remedies should be kept mind. In a person of hot temperament, the medication designed for a cool-minded person will do harm instead of doing good. Some people tolerate heat better than cold and vice versa.
Some like movement, while others like complete rest. All these factors form the constitution of the patient and should be kept in mind while prescribing a remedy. In a busy practice, the experienced homoeopath can prescribe a routine and well tried prescription for a particular ailment and it often works. However in case of chronic, long-standing illnesses, Preface 8 one must spend enough time on a detailed study of the patient as well as the illness.
In general, the homoeopath avoids combining the remedies. I also did the same initially but later on changed my practice. I did not have enough time to be able to arrive at one single remedy. In Rabwah, I was deeply involved in my official duties: in Waqf-e-Jadid, Ansar Ullah and Khuddamul Ahmadiyya etc. I had to be present in committee meetings of Anjuman Ahmadiyya and Tahrik-e-Jadid. Apart from that, I ran a homoeopathic dispensary in the Waqf-e-Jadid office in the evenings and would see up to one hundred patients a day. I had started the dispensary at home during the time between Maghrib and Isha (evening and night prayers). The shortage of time compelled me to devise the
compounding of more than one remedy. As I already indicated, I had done an extensive study of homoeopathic remedies and had informally practised homoeopathy for years. On the basis of this knowledge and experience, the compounding of medicines worked very well. In some cases, I had to change the compounds and in certain obstinate cases, I carried out a detailed personal study of the patient’s constitution and his disease.
Secondly, more and more remedies are being added to the homoeopathic Materia Medica. New remedies are being found to be more effective. Some ailments are not amenable to just any remedy. Compounding of more than one remedy works like a new medication. Many of the old remedies are already natural compounds themselves,
such as Nux Vomica, which is a combination of many natural constituents. While prescribing compounds, my concern is about their final characteristic features. It is not necessary that the total effect of the constituted remedies must be the sum total of all. Some remedies annul some of the effects of the other. Thus at the end, the compound may have a totally different effect.
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