HERING’S LAW AND SUPPRESSION – Peter Morrell

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• by bringing back, or revisiting, old symptoms;
• by stimulating the healing power of the organism;
• by moving sites of disease from the inside to the outside;
• by moving sites of disease from more vital to less vital areas;
• and from top downwards;
• as a result, during cure, eruptions on the skin or old discharges are
  likely to recur.

(Courtesy Dr R. Séror)
Constantine HERING (1800-1880)

This became called ‘Hering’s Law’ and operates in the opposite direction
to suppression.

‘Cure takes place in a definite orderly manner and direction…normal
vital processes, cellular, organic and systemic, begin at the center and proceed
outwardly…life is a centrifugal force, radiating, externalizing, …’from above
downward’. In the same sense disease is a centripetal force, opposing, obstructing,
penetrating toward the center and tending to disorganization… the progression of all
chronic diseases is from the surface toward the center; from less important to more
important organs – ‘from below upward’. Curative medicine reinforces the life force,
reverses the morbid process and annihilates disease. Symptoms disappear from above
downwards, from within outward and in the reverse order of their appearance. When a
patient with an obscure rheumatic endocarditis, for example, begins to have signs and
symptoms of acute arthritis soon after taking the homeopathic remedy and is relieved of
his chest sufferings, we know that cure has commenced.’ [Close, p.132]

‘Cure… consists of the speedy, gentle and permanent restitution of
health… in its entire extent …and in the shortest, most reliable, and safest manner,
according to clearly intelligible reasons or principles.’ [Close, p.74]

‘Suppression or palliation of disease, is the removal of the symptoms
of disease by external, mechanical, chemical or topical treatment; or by means of powerful
drugs, given internally in massive doses, which have a direct physiological or toxic
effect but no true therapeutic or curative action. The suppressed case always goes bad…
the abscess and fistula act as if they were the vent or exhaust of the disease, affording
temporary safety to vital organs. Close the exhaust and an explosion follows.’ [Close,
pp.74-5]

‘The mere removal of the tangible products of disease by mechanical
means as in the case of tumors, or of the external visible signs of disease by topical
applications as in the case of eruptions and discharges, not only does not cure the
disease, but does the patient a positive injury and renders the case inveterate or more
difficult to cure…to the death of the patient from metastasis and the complications
which result from such treatments. Disease is only cured by the internally administered
similar medicine…’ [Close, p.73]

‘It should be a matter of routine in making the first examination, to
ascertain what drugs have been used. In chronic cases this investigation should extend
back through the whole lifetime of the patient. The diseases from which the patient has
suffered, and the drugs used in their treatment should be ascertained if possible… the
key to a difficult case may be the drug or drugs which have ‘cured’ some acute disease,
perhaps early in the patient’s medical history. Antidoting the drug clears up the case.
Frequently, for example, will some chronic disease of the liver, kidneys, spleen or lungs
be traced back to an initial attack of malarial fever checked by massive doses of quinine
or arsenic. The patient has ‘never been well since’…’ [Close, p.120]

‘In a case variously diagnosed as chronic gout… I witnessed the
reappearance of a discharge from the urethra fifteen years after the original gonorrheal
discharge had disappeared under the influence of astringent injections. With the
establishment of the discharge, the patient’s ‘rheumatic’ symptoms began to rapidly
improve and a perfect cure resulted… metastasis of the original disease was caused by
the injections… drug symptoms and complications often arise in the most unexpected and
surprising ways, and baffle all but the most acute and experienced examiners. Hair dyes,
and tonics, complexion beautifiers, dentrifices, medicated soaps, antiseptics; borax in
baby’s mouth to prevent sprue, and carbolic acid in mama’s douche to prevent babies;
innumerable ointments and lotions; to say nothing about the equally numerous patent and
proprietary nostrums which fill the shelves of the corner drug stores and find their way
‘down the red lane’ into the human system, all play their part in creating morbid
susceptibility, idiosyncrasy and drug diseases and in making work for the doctor.’ [Close,
p.121]

Source:
Stuart Close, 1924, The Genius of Homeopathy,
Lectures and Essays on Homeopathic Philosophy, Jain, India reprint.

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