In Reprint: Clinical Observations of Children's Remedies

Review

This book review is reprinted from Volume 97, Number 2, Summer 2004 edition of American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine with permission of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

Reviewed by George Guess, MD, DHt

Dr. Master's new book, Clinical Observations of Children s Remedies, provides the homeopathic community with an eminently valuable tool for treatment of children. The book provides detailed and highly accessible information on 76 homeopathic remedies, all emphasizing how these remedies present in chiidren. Though written in outline form, the remedy descriptions are very thorough, very detailed. There is even frequent inclusion of relevant physical examination findings, quite a rarity these days. It is patently obvious from this work that Dr. Master possesses vast clinical experience and has accumulated an abundance of knowledge on this topic.

Each chapter is organized to provide, first, the most important mental and physical "identifying features" of the remedy, followed by a section by section offering of "other important symptoms" from head to generalities.

In addition to the material provided for each remedy individually, the volume is replete with differential diagnosis charts comparing the features of other remedies that present similarly in certain diseases. It's a gold mine of practical information to which every busy practitioner and ambitious student will want access.

Prefacing the materia medica are chapters covering symptoms of unusual behavior within various developmental stages, interesting tips on children's case taking, and detailed descriptions of abnormal physical examination findings in children and their diagnostic significance.

A broad range of remedies are covered, although I found myself wishing, as I read, that there were even more small remedies included. Throughout the book many alternate remedies for a given symptom are mentioned parenthetically, prompting a quick turning of pages in search of a detailed description of the remedy(ies),only to discover unhappily that it had not been included. Hopefully Dr. Master will remedy this shortcoming with a second volume.

Some of the less common remedies included in this volume are: Aranea ixobola, Artemisia abrotanum, Chlorpromazinum, Lac delphinium, Lac leoninum, Mygale lasiodora, Natrum silicatum, Saccharum officinarum, Sulphur iodatum, Theridion, etc.

Here are a few of the characteristics noted for Lac delphinum: artistic creativity, clairvoyance, family-oriented children, fear of robbers, love for animals, sentimental, allergic bronchitis after indulgence in cold drinks and ice cream, tendency to sinusitis and short, dry, tickling cough, food faddism in children who live with a forsaken feeling; shares many common symptoms with both Phosphorus and Carcinosin.

The book is hardbound in a beautiful blue cover adorned with an angelic sleeping baby's face. The page and print quality are high. The book is extensively indexed.

My only complaint about this book is the lack of headers identifying at a glance which remedy one is reading; this frustrates any impulse to flip alphabetically through the book in search of a particular remedy, and requires constant reference to the table of contents. I hope subsequent editions correct this small deficiency.

Finally, I have left the best for last. Attached to the back cover of this tome is a companion CD containing a searchable electronic version of the book formatted for Adobe Acrobat Reader. I could access it with both Acrobat Reader 5.0 and Adobe Reader 6.0. This is a fantastic development which, hopefully, presages many more such additions to future homeopathic texts.

Clinical Observations of Children's Remedies is an excellent text, one which any professional homeopath treating children would benefit from by reading.

About the Reviewer: George Guess, MD, DHt is in private practice in Charlottesville, VA. He is editor of the AJHM and Vice-President of the American Board of Homeotherapeutics.

This review was reprinted from Volume XVII, Issue I, Spring 2004 edition of Simillimum with
permission from the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians.

Reviewed by: Neil Tessler, ND, DHANP

Farokh Master is a respected Bombay physician homeopath. Along with the present volume, he is the author of a recent book detailing milk remedies. Here he has offered the fruit of his long homeopathic practice in the form of a modern textbook for the treatment of infants and children.

There is a very useful discussion of normal childhood developmental stages as well as the indicators of abnormalities in development. There is a systems survey detailing points to observe on physical examination, along with remedy considerations. He also offers a thorough discussion of pediatric case taking. There are many comments regarding general considerations in homeopathic pediatric care.

Regarding the Materia Medica, Dr. Master explains, "The 'Symptoms' in this book are not like a standard Materia Medica based on provings, but they are based purely on my experience, my own clinical observation (or confirmation) derived from twenty-three years of homeopathic practice..."

Dr. Master covers seventy-six remedies in considerable depth. He includes several remedies of more recent development, including Calcarea muriaticum, Lac delphinum, Lac humanum and Lac leoninum. As usual these days, we are left at the mercy of the writer in terms of the reliability of his information that does not distinguish well-developed indications from clinical experience, very new remedies from old. However, pushing on with a little experimental faith it is likely there is a tremendous amount of useful material. The volume is so huge (almost six hundred pages of materia medica) that a repertory of some kind would be immensely useful for a future edition or a web site.

Dr. Master's considerable experience coupled with his evident energy and enthusiasm is bringing forth interesting works, incorporating classical and contemporary sources. I appreciated his compilation on the milk remedies, particularly for the fact that such a collection has been lacking. Similarly, a pediatric text of depth and breadth has been long overdue and will likely prove to be of immense value to clinicians.

His books are printed in Europe and beautifully presented with durable binding and high quality paper. They are clearly designed to take a lot of use.

This book review is reprinted with permission from Volume 19, Spring 2006 Edition of Homeopathic Links.

Reviewed by Ivo Wiesner, Czech Republic

The book under review is the second edition of the famous Bombay homeopath Farokh Master's Materia Medica of Children's Remedies. Part I includes a chapter on "Abnormal behaviour in children", listing the disorders which may be observed during the stages of child development from the newborn (0-1 month of age), through infants (1-12 months) to early and late childhood, i.e. disorders from sleeping, eating and elimination functions to school phobia, poor school performance, peer interpersonal relations, and fear of authority. The book continues with the "Art and Science of Homeopathic Pediatrics", and "Case Taking: the History". The next chapter "Observation of newborns, infants and toddlers" suggests helpful questions which should be answered by an .observer. The chapter "Physical examination" closes the first part of the book.

The brief part II of the book contains line drawings based on PowerPoint slides and entitled "Skills in treating the newborn". These are in the form of illustrated boxes sometimes in comic-strip style; in their simplified yet instructive way, they are helpful in memorizing symptoms like "A very sound sleep may be indicative of remedies Belladona or Pulsatilla".

Part III is the core of the book and presents an extensive yet well-structured description of76 remedies, none of which is really new. Besides the usual polychrest remedies frequently prescribed in almost every homeopathic practice and typical children's remedies, we also find some less frequently or rarely prescribed remedies like Aranea ixobola (witty and snappish, extreme restlessness), Chlorpromazinum (schizoid personality), Lac delphinum (artistic creativity), Lac leoninum (angry and abusive child whose ego tends to get hurt very easily), Mygale lasiodora (child with acute earache and chorea) or Sanicula aqua. Similar remedies are compared in special boxes - very useful indeed for memorizing and quick reference. The remedies are described in a new format: the extensive text of each remedy is divided into two main parts: A) "Identifying features", and B) "Other important symptoms". Each of these two main parts is further subdivided into mental and physical symptoms. The greatest virtue of this book is that under "Identifying features" only symptoms are listed which are unique to a given remedy and not present in any other remedy! Amazing!

A CD is enclosed with the book and this gives the complete text of the presented Materia Medica in pdf format - ChildRemCD.pdf - which is fully searchable by pressing the Ctrl-F key combination.

Approaching the end of the book, the reader might be tempted to ask the question: "Is it meaningful to publish another materia medica with no really new remedies?" The author himself supplies an answer in his preface to the second edition: "The symptoms in this book are not like a standard materia medica based on provings. They are based purely on my experience, on my own clinical observations or confirmations derived from 23 years of homeopathic practice in the hospital and in my own busy clinic."

So to whom may this book be recommended? Definitely to all serious homeopathic practitioners of materia medica who want to give a hierarchical structure to their knowledge of homeopathic remedies, and to everybody who wants to widen his/her knowledge of remedy understanding.