Glossary of homeopathic terms

Plain definitions of the terms used in the books and on this site: the kinds of remedy, how remedies are prepared and measured, and how to read an entry.

Kinds of remedy

Simple remedy

A remedy made from one substance: a plant, an animal product or a mineral. Most of the library is simple remedies, and these are what the classical books mainly describe.

Polychrest

A remedy with a wide range of action that is used very often, such as Sulphur, Pulsatilla, Arnica or Calcarea carbonica. Polychrests have the longest entries in most books.

Nosode

A remedy prepared from a disease product or a pathogen, for example Tuberculinum, Medorrhinum or Psorinum. Nosodes were introduced during the nineteenth century by physicians including Hering, Swan and Burnett.

Bowel nosode

A nosode prepared from intestinal bacteria, developed by Edward Bach and continued by John Paterson: Morgan, Proteus, Gaertner, Dysentery Co., Sycotic Co., Mutabile, Faecalis and Bacillus No. 7.

Sarcode

A remedy prepared from healthy tissue, an organ, a secretion or a hormone of an animal, such as Thyroidinum.

Imponderable

A remedy made from an energy or force instead of a substance, such as X-ray, Electricitas or Magnetis.

Tissue salt (biochemic remedy)

One of twelve mineral salts proposed by Wilhelm Schüssler in the 1870s as the basis of a system of treatment. They are used in low potencies, typically 6X: Calcarea fluorica, Calcarea phosphorica, Calcarea sulphurica, Ferrum phosphoricum, Kali muriaticum, Kali phosphoricum, Kali sulphuricum, Magnesia phosphorica, Natrum muriaticum, Natrum phosphoricum, Natrum sulphuricum and Silicea.

Combination remedy (complex)

A formula that combines several remedies in one preparation. The library holds one modern book of such formulas (Narayani); they are not classical single remedies.

Isopathy

Treating with a preparation made from the agent or product that is thought to cause the complaint. It differs from homeopathy proper, which treats by similarity. Nosodes are used both ways.

Preparation and potency

Mother tincture (Ø)

The undiluted liquid preparation, usually an alcoholic extract of a fresh plant, from which dilutions are made. The books write it Ø.

Trituration

Grinding an insoluble substance with milk sugar in successive steps, used to prepare the lowest potencies of minerals and metals.

Decimal scale (X)

Each step dilutes one part in ten, so 6X means six such steps. Written X or D. In this library an ordinal without a stated scale is read as decimal.

Centesimal scale (C)

Each step dilutes one part in a hundred, so 30C means thirty such steps. Written C or CH. Higher numbers such as 200C and 1M mean more steps.

LM (Q) potency

A fifty-millesimal scale described by Hahnemann in the sixth edition of the Organon, written LM or Q.

Succussion

Vigorous shaking at each step of dilution. Together with dilution it makes a potency.

Potency (potentisation)

The strength of a remedy as expressed by its steps of dilution and succussion, for example 6X, 30C, 200C or 1M. The library gives potencies exactly as each book writes them.

Reading the books

Materia medica

A reference that describes remedies: their sources, the symptoms they produce, what makes them better or worse, and what they have been used for.

Proving

A systematic trial in which healthy people take a substance and record the symptoms it produces. It is the basis of a remedy's symptom picture.

Keynote

A single striking, characteristic symptom that points to a remedy. Allen's and Guernsey's books are built around them.

Modalities

Circumstances that make a symptom better or worse, such as heat, cold, motion, rest or time of day.

Aggravation and amelioration

Worse and better. A homeopathic aggravation is a temporary worsening of the symptoms after a dose, which the older books describe at length.

Rubric

A heading in a repertory or a condition list, such as “Headache, bilious”, under which the remedies that cover it are listed.

Repertory

An index that lists symptoms (rubrics) with the remedies known to cover them. It is used to find candidate remedies.

Repertorisation

Using a repertory to rank remedies against several symptoms at once. The library's repertory page does this by counting how many of your terms each remedy covers, then weighing the evidence.

Antidote

A remedy or substance said to counteract or end the action of another remedy. Each remedy page lists what antidotes it and what it is antidoted by, with the books that say so.

Complementary and inimical

A complementary remedy follows another well and carries its action further. Inimical remedies are said not to follow each other.

Compare

Remedies with similar pictures that an author asks the reader to tell apart. “Compare” lists are among the most useful parts of Clarke and Boericke.

Ideas in practice

Law of similars

The principle that a substance that produces symptoms in a healthy person can treat similar symptoms in a sick person. In Latin, similia similibus curentur.

Similimum

The remedy that best matches the whole symptom picture of a case.

Totality of symptoms

The whole of the mental, general and particular symptoms taken together when choosing a remedy.

Constitution

A person's lasting physical and mental makeup. Several books describe the constitutional type that each remedy suits.

Miasm

In Hahnemann's theory, an underlying chronic disposition to disease. Psora, sycosis and syphilis are the three classical miasms.

Vital force

Hahnemann's term for the life-sustaining energy that a well-chosen remedy is meant to stimulate.