Synoptic Materia Medica II

Recensie

This book review is reprinted from the British Homoeopathic Journal Vol 86, April 1997, with permission from Peter Fisher, Editor.

Perhaps Frans Vermeulen never sleeps: it seems so short a time since his last 2 books appeared. Is there room for another? Doesn't his Concordant Materia Medica do enough for the minor homoeopathic medicines? What can be different from that and still useful?

The troubles with Concordant are that it is derivative and that, following Boericke's Materia Medica with Repertory, the facts are thrown in such a heap as to be hard to put in order. So there might be room for a text as well-ordered as Synoptic Materia Medica, even if it offered nothing new. But this text does!

Its headings are Signs, which identify the medicine officially then give nearly a page on its origin-most enjoyable reading. More than that, the source of the medicine, who proved it, how many provers there were (if known), its historical uses and mythological connections; its chemical constituents, etc. are given to us in more detail than any other standard homoeopathic textbook, and with humour to leaven the lump. Signatures? - heaven forfend! Yet you might wonder as you read some of these descriptions, as the author, with a light touch, invites you to do.

The next heading is Compare: a short list of medicines on which Voisin has advised. This is always useful, and here a little different from other texts. Verbascum, for example, has Bell, Phos, Nux v, Caust, Mez, Spong and Chel in that strange order. This is quite different from the main list in Concordant, which copies Clarke (Dictionary of the Materia Medica) then lists more-not including Bell but mentioning lesser medicines. It differs too from Gibson-Miller's Relationships of Remedies), but I like this list, as the homoeopathic medicines relate to what must be the most likely clinical use: facial neuralgia. The section on Region is a short summary of where each medicine acts most.

Leading Symptoms, as in Synoptic I, gives 3 degrees of emphasis in symptoms grouped into mentals, generals and locals (M, G & P) and sensibly follows the same logical order of topics each time.

Rubrics are from an unspecified repertory (not Synthesis) with degree and where relevant single entry indication: e.g. 2/1. Vermeulen has rendered the rubric entries into more readable English and thoughtfully left the head-word in italics so it can be identified.

There is a separate heading for Foods, including a chapter on botanical relationships which will aid comparative study, and a more extensive foods repertory than usual. There are 13 specific entries under Fish! This is an area where change is needed, as the vast range of foods now available is not yet rendered into rubric references.

It is important to examine the content of the entries. Verbascum was proved by Hahnemann with 5 provers, and he is quoted thrice in the text. In addition to the essay on its source, there are 107 facts about it. A few mentals are given, but not in Concordant. They are the small more idiosyncratic symptoms in Synthesis, which has more detail. The duplication occurring in these texts has been pruned here. A few local facts have disappeared in the process. For example, rectum and stool are omitted from Synoptic II, although hard stool is a high-type entry, with urging and griping, frequent stool and diarrhoea in at least one of the other texts, and some italic entries are missing under Extremities. I suppose this is inevitable, though 6 lines added to each of the 338 medicines to make the text complete would only add 44 pages, and still be shorter than Concordant.

Which medicines are they? Mostly old, some new. The main bowel nosodes are included and Paterson's account of their source is quoted adequately under Dys co. Unfortunately neither Morgan pure, Proteus, nor Syc co are identified as bowel nosodes, and Syc co is wrongly identified as Streptococcus faecalis. Chocolate, Hydrogen, Chlorpro zinum and Haloperidol find their way in, but unaccountably Scorpion, Bacillus 7 and many of Clarke's old favourites, Scholten's additions and other possible conventional drugs are omitted. Thus, there is work to be done for a second edition, and room for Synoptic III!

In summary, this is a new text, based on provings and repertory, well laid out for easy reading and reference, and containing more source data than elsewhere. As such, it is a first-rank addition to the library of any keen homoeopath, where it will find frequent use. I thoroughly recommend it.

JOHN ENGLISH

British Homoeopathic Journal
Volume 86, April 1997

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

Reviewed by Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman

Frans Vermeulen's third, highly useful materia medica follows his Synoptic Materia Medica I and his Concordant Materia Medica. The author explains in his preface, "The first Synoptic Materia Medica was very well- received, so I was asked to make a follow-up. It took me a while, but here it is. This time we looked at so-called 'small' remedies. They are quite a few of them: old and new. Many of them never got mentioned as they deserve, they seem to have been forgotten."

You will not forget them once you have this invaluable book to consult. In this age when so many homeopathic reference sources are on computer, I still find it useful to have a few selected books on my desk or next to my computer to thumb through. Vermeulen covers nearly 400 small remedies from Abies canadensis to Zizia aurea, and most remedies in between that you would want to study. He even includes information on the recent provings of Diamond, Brassica, Neon, Indium, and others.

Vermeulen draws information from the respected homeopathic literature as well as researching English, German, and French literature on provings. He has organized the materia medica information in the following categories: Signs, Compare, Region, Leading Symptoms (mentals and generals), and Rubrics.

In addition to important homeopathic information, in the "Signs" section the author gives fascinating information about the substance in nature, which is very helpful to understanding the nature of the patient in relationship to the nature of the substance. At the beginning of this book, Vermeulen also includes a "Food and Drink" section of the small remedies and a list of botanical relationships of the small remedies.

I definitely recommend this book to any prescriber who is interested in learning more about the hundreds of small remedies of which we know so little.

RESONANCE NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1996

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

Reviewed by Alistair Dempster

This is a Materia Medica of the "small" remedies from the author of the well received and immensely useful Synoptic Materia Medica. As a visiting lecturer at several venues in Europe the genesis of the first volume was inspired by his approach to presenting materia medica in an easily readable and digestible format. This is also true of this second volume.

My initial impressions of the hardback cover and silver "balicron" surface gave an understated but quality look to the book. It is the same size but thicker than the first Synoptic materia medica so still able to be carried with you. The paper quality is excellent and the type face easy to read. It is well laid out - in a similar format to the first volume, with which I am familiar, which aids scanning of remedies in the practice room. There is a handy remedy index at the beginning to avoid unnecessary flicking through pages to ascertain the inclusion of a particular remedy. I must agree with the author when he states in the preface with reference to the proving of new remedies - "Stagnation means decline, as Sepia shows us. That is why this book contains old as well as new 'small' remedies. Some are predestined to become polycrests, others may remain small. Whatever their outcome they all belong in this book".

Vermuelen has used old and modern sources in compiling the book; he was also able to transfer to English information from French, German, Dutch and even Russian authors that made otherwise inaccessible remedy information available to the English reading homoeopath. Thanks are due for this alone. Other resources include Reference Works, particularly the magazines section, as well as numerous other publications and homoeopathic periodicals.

The Preface is not only interesting and colourful to read but is important to the user as it explains the author's reasons for the layout of each remedy picture and his insights on homoeopathy in general. There are specific Sections at the front of the book devoted to botanical Relationships, Food and Drink and Comparisons:

Botanical Relationships - plants used as homoeopathic remedies are classified according to Natural Order contrary to the usual Family hierarchy. "Plant orders are placed above the families. This is done to emphasise relationships between plant families and also family relationships of species."

Food and Drink - gives desires, aversions, ameliorations and aggravations of the remedies listed in the book. These could be useful additions to food and drink sections of most repertories.

Comparisons - split into Kentian repertory layout from Mind to Generals. this section details symptoms in one column and in the opposite column the remedy to find this symptom under. This is not an exhaustive exercise and applies only to remedies contained In the book. The extensive bibliography is impressive and offers readers the opportunity of expanding their mind as well as their own library from this list of excellent sources and reference material.

The big plus about this materia medica is the abundance of information about the remedies compared to other synoptic materia medicas, plus the gathering together of all those "smaller" and newer, and the not so well known remedies. In other books on smaller remedies the information can be scanty so their relevance may not be so obvious. It also includes provings of new remedies and those not so well known provings, translated into English for our benefit. The book enables you to access many of those normally difficult to find remedies in one volume. It found a place on my desk immediately and it was pressed into service the next patient that I saw. There are descriptions of Marble, Granite, Androctonos (Scorpion), Hydrogen, Plutonium, Kali nitricum, Sequoia, Pituitary anterior, DNA, sarcodes, tautopathic remedies - from the phenoziathine anti psychotic drugs to Morphinum and so on; there are 348 remedies listed in all.

What is fascinating about the book is the section at the beginning of each remedy headed 'Signs'. In this section the history and source of the remedy is brought to life and draws on sources ranging from Greek mythology to Pharmacology, and from Metallurgy to Botany, Biology and Entomology. The Signs describes the essential nature and source of the remedy followed by remedy relations and affinities before setting out the symptomatic picture. I enjoyed the descriptions of Sequoia, Formica rufa, Ginko biloba, Lac.felinum, Thallium to name but a few, and these served to whet the appetite for further reading. It also reminded me of the importance of the source material and its natural state and thus nodded in recognition of the Doctrine of Signatures from the old alchemist Paracelcus. The concluding section, as in the first volume, gives a list of characteristic symptoms set out in repertorial fashion from Mind through to Generalities. I was so impressed by the book with its wealth of coherent, definitive information that I struggled to find any criticism serious enough to avoid using it. Materia Medica are often the foundation and confirmatory basis for our prescriptions and this volume offers an extremely cogent description of many of the so called smaller remedies and the newer remedies and thus is a useful tool. For the busy peripatetic homoeopath, or for regular use on the desktop, I have found it has become an indispensable part of my everyday practice and would not hesitate to recommend it to others for the same purpose.

The Homoeopath No. 63 1996