Aphorism 73

Aphorism 73 easy explanation

Different types of acute diseases.

 Further, classifying acute diseases, Dr. Hahnemann says that acute diseases can be of following types; 

1. Individual acute disease- 

a) Caused by exciting cause. 

b) Causes can be - Excess of food or its insufficient supply.

Severe physical impression like chills, overheating dissipation, strains etc.

 Physical irritations. 

Mental emotions. 

c)It is transient explosion of latent Psora.  

d) If the acute disease is not of too violent character, transient explosion of latent Psora returns to its dormant state soon. 

2. Sporadic acute disease- 

a) Attacks several persons here and there, at same time. 

b) Caused by meteoric or telluric influence, or injurious agent. 

c) Susceptibility possessed to be affected is possessed by only few persons at a same time. 

3. Epidemic acute disease- 

a) Many persons are attacked by same cause and manifests similar sufferings. 

b) These are generally infectious in nature - and when it occurs among thickly populated area, fever may arise 

c) as the diseases have identical origin ,they produce identical morbid processes. 

d) If left to themselves, they terminate in moderate period of time in death or recovery. 

e) Caused by calamities of war, inundations, famine etc. 

f)They effect like acute miasms, which recur in same manner and show identical manifestations, so they can be known by a same traditional name. 

g)They can be of two types - 

i. Those effecting person once in life time- 

> Small pox.

> Measles. 

> Whooping cough.

> Ancient smooth bright red scarlet fever.

 ii. Those effecting person more than once- 

➤ Plague of Levant. 

➤Yellow fever of the sea-coast. 

➤ Asiatic cholera.

 In first footnote Dr. Hahnemann says that homoeopathic physician does not entertain names of diseases as if nature dares not to produce any other type of disease, which have same symptoms and treat according to their names like physicians of old school, unless they are of fixed character. Rather, he treats the case in hand as per its peculiarities.

 In second footnote Dr. Hahnemann mentioned a problem encountered after 1801 in which a kind of Pupura miliaris (roodvonk), which came from the West, was confused by physicians with the Scarlet fever, although both exhibited totally different symptoms as -

# Purpura miliaris (roodvonk) curative medicine and prophylaxis is Aconite, which was merely sporadic. 

#Scarlet fever curative medicine and prophylaxis is - Belladonna, which was invariably epidemic. 

Further, he comments that in later years the two above mentioned diseases occasionally conjoined to form an eruptive fever of a peculiar type, for which neither Aconite nor Belladonna was found to be exactly homoeopathic. By this instance, Dr. Hahnemann clearly shows the inefficacy of basing therapeutics on the basis of nomenclature of disease.