Monera, Kingdom Bacteria and Viruses
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The book contains Classification of all the bacteria and viruses that have made their way into the homeopathic pharmacopoeia. The history of disease, vaccines, medicine and religion is charted here. We see how disease and religion walk hand in glove; how the evolution of man mirrors that of the microbe. We see the myths attendant on disease and the unbelievable power of the pathogen. Our language is riddled with the language of disease this is shown in the many anecdotes and myths that lighten and balance the dry and sometimes statistical medical and scientific language.
There is often more than one remedy per bacteria (for example one remedy made from the disease product and another from the vaccine). The history and genealogy of these makes fascinating reading, and Vermeulen has implemented his sleuthing skills to unravel many irregularities.
As in The Prisma, there is a lot here to read and to ingest. The material answers some questions, but raises many much deeper questions about the roots and philosophy of disease. Controversial matter is made available, and Vermeulen, seldom commenting, offers websites for further searches. Some of the language is impenetrable, old fashioned, and some is new because this book charts the history of the microscopic world of the Monera from four billion years ago to the present and that needs a new language. The glossary helps out by elucidating obscure language from many -ologies and opathies!
What is subtly distilled is the essence of bacterial and virus sensation. These groups are coming to light as a difficult and dysfunctional family. There are the glimpses of brilliance and egocentricity that we associate with particular remedies Tuberculinum and Syphilinum. And we see in a flash familiar fingerprints in the Lyme nosode and Brucella melitensis pictures. We understand that bacterial life exists at the extremes, creating both genius and mind-numbing dullness; euphoria and prostration; dehydration and inundation.
This is a book that will make you question your very DNA. And of course it provides the reference tool you seek if you work in the realm of Miasmatic prescribing, or Family and Sensation. It is an informative tool regardless of which methodology you use to effect your prescription.
ISBN | 9789076189154 |
---|---|
Author | Frans Vermeulen |
Type | Hardback |
Language | English |
Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
Pages | 800 |
Publisher | Emryss Publishers |
Review | This book review is reprinted from Volume 11, 2005 Edition of The American Homeopath with permission from The American Homeopath. Reviewed by Melanie Grimes Monera are bacteria, a life form divided into two kingdoms, the Archaebacteria and Eubacteria. This book investigates both of these groups as well as viruses. The materia medica of over 100 remedies is discussed in 848 pages. Bacteria are the most numerous organisms on earth. Originating over 3.5 billion years ago, they were the only life form on earth until 1.5 billion years ago. They are also the most numerous of life forms. Vermeulen points out that a gram of garden soil contains 2.5 billion bacteria. To further elucidate the importance of this kingdom, he mentions that a human body contains approximately 100 trillion cells, 10 trillion of which are human and the other 90 trillion of which are bacteria. Since 9/10 of our bodies are made up of this other life form, perhaps this kingdom does bear investigation! Bacteria are usually considered to be part of the animal kingdom but Vermeulen makes a case for classifying them in a separate kingdom, that of Monera. He also suggests a six kingdom, system, which is the generally accepted classification system, including Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia, Mineralia. Protista are unicellular nucleated organisms, on the borderline between plants and animals (algae, molds, amoebae, Plasmodium, etc.). Fungi, which most homeopathic literature considers as part of the plant kingdom, are now classified in their own separate kingdom in many other fields of science. Hence the title of this book, Monera, a work dedicated to the homeopathic understanding of this diverse kingdom. There are currently 80 remedies listed in our materia medica, most of them not well documented. Only a few have thousands of symptoms, mostly the nosodes associated with bacterial diseases, such as Medorrhinum, Syphilinum, Tuberculinum, etc. The remedy names used in the book are taken from the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, based on the Approved List of Bacteria Names (Skerman, et ai, 1980). Vermeulen points out that the current homeopathic abbreviation system doesn't follow clear rules, sometimes referring to a genus, sometimes a species. He recommends the use of the Latin binominal name first, then the genus. For instance, Belladonna would become Attropa belladonna. The scope of this book, and the new information it covers, are enormous. The table of contents alone is 24 pages; the bibliography is four, the glossary seven, and the index 13. The taxonomy map on the inside front cover is a good guide to the Bacteria phylum, order, family, genus, species and remedy name. The back cover does the same for the Virus family. This book is the first in a new series that Vermeulen is working on, called Spectrum. Future books will cover the other kingdoms, from the single-celled to the complex animal kingdom, the periodic table, plants, as well as manmade substances, the imponderable, and the unclassified. Vermeulen aims to group comprehensive information on these substances into one series of books. Information has been gleaned from websites, encyclopedias, cases, provings, old homeopathic texts, lectures, and libraries, including previously unpublished articles from Pierre Schmidt's collection. The book also includes a discussion of the history of disease, vaccines, medicine, and religion. It provides answers, as well as demanding that we ask questions, about the origin of life and what it means to be human. This is a wonderful and complex book, an important reference tool covering a list of remedies that has not been previously collected and organized as such. Armed with this important reference book for the consultation table, I look forward to the other volumes of Spectrum. This book review is reprinted with permission from Volume 19, Spring 2006 Edition of Homeopathic Links. Reviewed by Dr. J. Rozencwajg MD, PhD, NMD, New Zealand Another masterpiece by a master writer and master homeopath. Most of the usual materia medicas I have read are alphabetical compilations of remedies and symptoms. Some are written like shopping lists and are as enjoyable to read as the phone book, others are more reader friendly and engaging; all convey useful information about common and rare remedies, but I always end up missing a few remedies, asking myself why those were selected and not others and being painfully aware that every author has copied from an earlier one, sometimes word for word, rarely with much originality. Not this time. Monera is the first volume of a series of six entitled Spectrum Materia Medica. Frans' idea is to go systematically through the animal kingdom from the smallest to the biggest ones, through the periodical table, the plants, the synthetic substances, the imponderables, using the modern scientific taxonomy so that nothing is missed. This way, each and every substance available that could become a homeopathic remedy will have a chance and there will be no arbitrary decision about what to include and what to exclude. Monera is about microscopic life forms: viruses and bacteria; it is the "Book of the Nosodes", all of them, once and for all. Using the microbiological classification for a materia medica allows us to understand the closeness of some types of bacteria and viruses, as well as the relationships between remedies. The legends and the histories of diseases like the plague or leprosy are well detailed and unsurprisingly relate so clearly to the provings or the clinical use that one wonders why some eminent homeopaths refuse to admit the facts. Vermeulen used all the material available: textbooks of medicine and microbiology, clinical books, history books and collections of tales, regular provings, meditative and dream provings, clinical reports and web sites. Everything he wrote has references and can easily be checked. And it is never boring; it reads like a thriller, actually. The history of a disease related to the microorganism studied, with or without the legends, is followed by clear clinical descriptions with symptoms and signs in such details it could become a blueprint for studying clinical diagnosis; what I most liked in those descriptions are the little facts that allow a precise clinical diagnosis, like how to differentiate between the eruptions of measles and scarlet fever according to the direction of reddening of a macule that has been compressed and has become white. No need for lab work when you know that! Then the materia medica, proving and clinical use is described, with cases. It becomes very easy to correlate symptoms and signs of a named disease with symptoms of a proving, demonstrating once again that a pathology that can be associated directly with a substance is in fact a proving, albeit a crude one. When vaccines have been created for that microorganism, a study of the complications of the vaccines is also made as well as the homeopathic indications of the potentised vaccines. The Bowel Nosodes are integrated in their rightful place, not artificially separated, and although all the material is taken from available texts and nothing really new has been added, the clarity and precision of the presentation allows one to understand and assimilate the use of those remedies a lot better than by reading the original texts separately - at least for me. I could rave for pages about this book. Just read it: it is worth every penny, and when you finish it, I am quite sure you will preorder the next volume. This book review is reprinted from the Winter 2005 edition of The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths. Reviewed by Francis Treuherz This is the most erudite and recondite materia medica I have ever read. It exceeds even the arcane scholarship of the fastidious Otto Leeser whose chemical explanations of inorganic substances laced his mineral family materia medica with more chemistry than I ever understood. Frans Vermeulen has excelled himself with an edition of materia medica of a family or series never before published. OA Julian wrote a book on nosodes that has been badly translated as Treatise on Dynamized Micro Immunotherapy Isopathic Concretology. Until now it was a major source about remedies made from the products of disease. This new book starts with taxonomy of bacteria and viruses on the front and rear end papers. Using these charts one can immediately see the relationship of all the bacteria and viruses, and the homeopathic medicines that are prepared from them - if any. For there are bacteria that have not been used as a medicine. I suspect that the publication of the information in this book will lead to more provings of new remedies, and some real provings of partly or hardly proved remedies, for there are many rudimentary materia medica pictures here in this volume. Each material is described in detail with some excellent typographical devices to enhance, illustrate or summarise the information, before the materia medica is given, that is, where it exists. Here we can learn about the diseases and their symptoms and pathology as well as the bacteria and viruses. At one stroke, this book replaces our allopathic textbooks of infectious diseases as all the material appears together in an integrated fashion. There is a set of introductory chapters, explaining not only the nomenclature and classification but also the differences between nosodes and vaccines for example, and as many questions as answers. Here is a full explanation of the mysteries of the Bach and Paterson bowel nosodes, Borrelia and Brucellosis. I have only ever prescribed Malandrinum once but after reading this I can see a couple of cases where I missed it. The 'tuberculinums' are differentiated, the gonorrhoeas are disseminated, the spirochaetes are delineated. Avian flu and Oscillococcinum are properly described. I have already used the book to assist a student working on a project on MRSA. I looked in vain for Candida and realised it is a fungus, and must appear in another volume, instead I found Campylobacter and Herpes and more. There is a rich bibliography at the end, although there are many other references that are not fully sourced. There is a thorough glossary, and an index, which usefully capitalises remedy names within the rest of the information. This book, like so much of Frans Vermeulen's work, will rapidly become an indispensable modern classic, and richly deserves to do well. |
Review
This book review is reprinted from Volume 11, 2005 Edition of The American Homeopath with permission from The American Homeopath.
Reviewed by Melanie Grimes
Monera are bacteria, a life form divided into two kingdoms, the Archaebacteria and Eubacteria. This book investigates both of these groups as well as viruses. The materia medica of over 100 remedies is discussed in 848 pages.
Bacteria are the most numerous organisms on earth. Originating over 3.5 billion years ago, they were the only life form on earth until 1.5 billion years ago. They are also the most numerous of life forms.
Vermeulen points out that a gram of garden soil contains 2.5 billion bacteria. To further elucidate the importance of this kingdom, he mentions that a human body contains approximately 100 trillion cells, 10 trillion of which are human and the other 90 trillion of which are bacteria. Since 9/10 of our bodies are made up of this other life form, perhaps this kingdom does bear investigation!
Bacteria are usually considered to be part of the animal kingdom but Vermeulen makes a case for classifying them in a separate kingdom, that of Monera. He also suggests a six kingdom, system, which is the generally accepted classification system, including Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia, Mineralia. Protista are unicellular nucleated organisms, on the borderline between plants and animals (algae, molds, amoebae, Plasmodium, etc.). Fungi, which most homeopathic literature considers as part of the plant kingdom, are now classified in their own separate kingdom in many other fields of science.
Hence the title of this book, Monera, a work dedicated to the homeopathic understanding of this diverse kingdom. There are currently 80 remedies listed in our materia medica, most of them not well documented. Only a few have thousands of symptoms, mostly the nosodes associated with bacterial diseases, such as Medorrhinum, Syphilinum, Tuberculinum, etc.
The remedy names used in the book are taken from the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, based on the Approved List of Bacteria Names (Skerman, et ai, 1980). Vermeulen points out that the current homeopathic abbreviation system doesn't follow clear rules, sometimes referring to a genus, sometimes a species. He recommends the use of the Latin binominal name first, then the genus. For instance, Belladonna would become Attropa belladonna.
The scope of this book, and the new information it covers, are enormous. The table of contents alone is 24 pages; the bibliography is four, the glossary seven, and the index 13. The taxonomy map on the inside front cover is a good guide to the Bacteria phylum, order, family, genus, species and remedy name. The back cover does the same for the Virus family.
This book is the first in a new series that Vermeulen is working on, called Spectrum. Future books will cover the other kingdoms, from the single-celled to the complex animal kingdom, the periodic table, plants, as well as manmade substances, the imponderable, and the unclassified. Vermeulen aims to group comprehensive information on these substances into one series of books. Information has been gleaned from websites, encyclopedias, cases, provings, old homeopathic texts, lectures, and libraries, including previously unpublished articles from Pierre Schmidt's collection.
The book also includes a discussion of the history of disease, vaccines, medicine, and religion. It provides answers, as well as demanding that we ask questions, about the origin of life and what it means to be human.
This is a wonderful and complex book, an important reference tool covering a list of remedies that has not been previously collected and organized as such. Armed with this important reference book for the consultation table, I look forward to the other volumes of Spectrum.
This book review is reprinted with permission from Volume 19, Spring 2006 Edition of Homeopathic Links.
Reviewed by Dr. J. Rozencwajg MD, PhD, NMD, New Zealand
Another masterpiece by a master writer and master homeopath.
Most of the usual materia medicas I have read are alphabetical compilations of remedies and symptoms. Some are written like shopping lists and are as enjoyable to read as the phone book, others are more reader friendly and engaging; all convey useful information about common and rare remedies, but I always end up missing a few remedies, asking myself why those were selected and not others and being painfully aware that every author has copied from an earlier one, sometimes word for word, rarely with much originality.
Not this time.
Monera is the first volume of a series of six entitled Spectrum Materia Medica. Frans' idea is to go systematically through the animal kingdom from the smallest to the biggest ones, through the periodical table, the plants, the synthetic substances, the imponderables, using the modern scientific taxonomy so that nothing is missed. This way, each and every substance available that could become a homeopathic remedy will have a chance and there will be no arbitrary decision about what to include and what to exclude.
Monera is about microscopic life forms: viruses and bacteria; it is the "Book of the Nosodes", all of them, once and for all.
Using the microbiological classification for a materia medica allows us to understand the closeness of some types of bacteria and viruses, as well as the relationships between remedies.
The legends and the histories of diseases like the plague or leprosy are well detailed and unsurprisingly relate so clearly to the provings or the clinical use that one wonders why some eminent homeopaths refuse to admit the facts.
Vermeulen used all the material available: textbooks of medicine and microbiology, clinical books, history books and collections of tales, regular provings, meditative and dream provings, clinical reports and web sites. Everything he wrote has references and can easily be checked.
And it is never boring; it reads like a thriller, actually.
The history of a disease related to the microorganism studied, with or without the legends, is followed by clear clinical descriptions with symptoms and signs in such details it could become a blueprint for studying clinical diagnosis; what I most liked in those descriptions are the little facts that allow a precise clinical diagnosis, like how to differentiate between the eruptions of measles and scarlet fever according to the direction of reddening of a macule that has been compressed and has become white. No need for lab work when you know that! Then the materia medica, proving and clinical use is described, with cases. It becomes very easy to correlate symptoms and signs of a named disease with symptoms of a proving, demonstrating once again that a pathology that can be associated directly with a substance is in fact a proving, albeit a crude one.
When vaccines have been created for that microorganism, a study of the complications of the vaccines is also made as well as the homeopathic indications of the potentised vaccines.
The Bowel Nosodes are integrated in their rightful place, not artificially separated, and although all the material is taken from available texts and nothing really new has been added, the clarity and precision of the presentation allows one to understand and assimilate the use of those remedies a lot better than by reading the original texts separately - at least for me.
I could rave for pages about this book. Just read it: it is worth every penny, and when you finish it, I am quite sure you will preorder the next volume.
This book review is reprinted from the Winter 2005 edition of The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths.
Reviewed by Francis Treuherz
This is the most erudite and recondite materia medica I have ever read. It exceeds even the arcane scholarship of the fastidious Otto Leeser whose chemical explanations of inorganic substances laced his mineral family materia medica with more chemistry than I ever understood. Frans Vermeulen has excelled himself with an edition of materia medica of a family or series never before published. OA Julian wrote a book on nosodes that has been badly translated as Treatise on Dynamized Micro Immunotherapy Isopathic Concretology. Until now it was a major source about remedies made from the products of disease.
This new book starts with taxonomy of bacteria and viruses on the front and rear end papers. Using these charts one can immediately see the relationship of all the bacteria and viruses, and the homeopathic medicines that are prepared from them - if any. For there are bacteria that have not been used as a medicine. I suspect that the publication of the information in this book will lead to more provings of new remedies, and some real provings of partly or hardly proved remedies, for there are many rudimentary materia medica pictures here in this volume.
Each material is described in detail with some excellent typographical devices to enhance, illustrate or summarise the information, before the materia medica is given, that is, where it exists. Here we can learn about the diseases and their symptoms and pathology as well as the bacteria and viruses. At one stroke, this book replaces our allopathic textbooks of infectious diseases as all the material appears together in an integrated fashion.
There is a set of introductory chapters, explaining not only the nomenclature and classification but also the differences between nosodes and vaccines for example, and as many questions as answers.
Here is a full explanation of the mysteries of the Bach and Paterson bowel nosodes, Borrelia and Brucellosis. I have only ever prescribed Malandrinum once but after reading this I can see a couple of cases where I missed it. The 'tuberculinums' are differentiated, the gonorrhoeas are disseminated, the spirochaetes are delineated. Avian flu and Oscillococcinum are properly described. I have already used the book to assist a student working on a project on MRSA. I looked in vain for Candida and realised it is a fungus, and must appear in another volume, instead I found Campylobacter and Herpes and more.
There is a rich bibliography at the end, although there are many other references that are not fully sourced. There is a thorough glossary, and an index, which usefully capitalises remedy names within the rest of the information. This book, like so much of Frans Vermeulen's work, will rapidly become an indispensable modern classic, and richly deserves to do well.