The Minerals in Remedy Families

Taking the Case by Will Taylor, M.D.

Installment 15
of a series on homeopathy
© Will Taylor, MD 2002 [bio]Index of All Installments

Defining Families of Homeopathic Remedies
Sections: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Section 9

The Minerals

Bermhard Blosey did much of the work on the minerals, and particularly on classification of the Organics. The inorganic minerals, with their relatively simple structure, lent themselves more easily to classification. The principal classifications were by atomic constitution, according to periodic table organization. Additional categories were added for common functional groups (e.g., acids) and complex anions and cations such as nitrites, nitrates, hydroxides, ammonium salts, etc.

A few substances normally regarded by homeopaths as simple substances needed to be classified as the complex substances they truly are. Arsenicum album is the white oxide of Arsenic, As203; and is functionally an inorganic acid.

Our information on Mercurius, for which Merc (Mercurius solubilis) and Merc-v (Mercurius vivus) are often employed interchangeably, is based principally on Mercurius solubilis. This is a complex compound 2[NH2Hg2)NO3-H2O] which is both a nitrate and an ammonium salt, and needed to be placed in these "families," as well as classified under the obvious element Mercury.

Uses of Remedy Families

With the development of a comprehensive remedy-families database, it is possible to investigate remedy concordances based on such relationships.

In the installments to follow, I will explore the creation and rationale of remedy "families" based on relationships other than taxonomic.

I will also investigate how taxonomic and non-taxonomic remedy relationships may be gainfully applied in case analysis and in the comparative study of materia medica.

Sections: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Index of All Installments

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