From the Publisher:
Digitalis Purpurea: A Pure Pharmacography
This work on Digitalis, is the first monograph published as part of our ongoing project, to revise and revive the Materia Medica of Samuel Hahnemann. Our conclusion, after careful study of this drug, is that an in-depth understanding of its primary action is vital in order to apply it clinically.
We have chosen to present the symptoms in a new and clearer format, which we feel better highlights the characteristics of this medicine, without altering the original intention or meaning.
The lineage of each individual symptom is traced following its path from proving or toxicology through each of Hahnemann's various works, giving the reader unprecedented insight into the process used by Hahnemann to generate his materia medica.
Full accounts of the Old School Sources have been included and where necessary translated into English, adding an historical perspective as well as the opportunity for a more in-depth study and as a result, a deeper knowledge of the scope of this medicine.
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths, (from 'The Homeopath' Journal, Autumn 2017 edition). Reviewed by Robert Bridge.
George Dimitriadis is a man with a mission: to take classical homeopathic texts back to their pure roots and scrub them clean of mis readings and additions from later authors. Having focussed on several of Boenninghausen's works he has now turned his attention to Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura and The Chronic Diseases, with this present volume the first in a projected series. To this end he scrutinises each of the 602 symptoms of Digitalis that Hahnemann records, tracing them back to their original sources in a series of commentaries, and commentaries on commentaries, that occupy 90 per cent of the book. Dimitriadis' scholarship and thirst for accuracy is exhaustive and highly meticulous and one cannot fail to be astonished by his stamina and determination. He intersperses the text with quotations from a variety of classical authors, some in Greek, all stern reminders of the need for unstinting rigour in any process of learning. In our current climate, where materia medica can seemingly be extended through conjecture and speculation, this is a sobering enterprise, a return to basics.
Dimitriadis is not shy of sounding didactic and this is reinforced by a writing style that is rather awkward and oddly archaic and seems at times deliberately reminiscent of Hahnemann's own vocabulary and sentence structure. There were several moments when I found myself assuming that a particular passage was a quote from Hahnemann or one of his contemporaries when in fact it was Dimitriadis himself.
This book does what it sets out to do: to present an uncluttered and pristine list of Hahnemann's Digitalis symptoms. It is easy to see that this has been an enthralling and absorbing project for Dimitriadis. What is less easy to identify is the potential audience. For sure there will be scholars of classical homeopathy who will treasure Dimitriadis' endeavour and may well find his dogged pursuit of symptom accuracy as thrilling as a good detective novel. However, for the average practitioner, for whom the often small differences in symptoms may seem clinically less significant, especially for a remedy that is not amongst the front runners of polycrests, the price tag may seem quite high.
