Clinically Verified Materia Medica: The Tapestry of Homeopathy by Roger Morrison

In 2010, Dr. Morrison began writing a second edition of his Desktop Guide to Keynotes and Confirmatory Symptoms (1993). Since that time, several contemporary authors had been introducing innovations, for example, Scholten's the elements of homeopathy with aspects of the periodic table, Rajan Sankaran's sensation method and various ideas brought forth by Sherr and others. He felt that these methodologies needed to be mentioned in his writings and thus decided to incorporate them into a second edition. Little did he know what he was getting into as the inclusion of thousands of cured cases by himself and others needed to be included.

“As I spent more and more time on the cured cases while writing, one day I thought, ‘What if these cured cases are not just meant to assist in my writing about this remedy, what if they are more important than anything I am writing? What if these cases are The Remedy itself?’ In that very moment I decided to shift to writing only what was found in the cases, exactly as the information was presented, ignoring everything I thought I knew or had been told about the remedy. In essence, I decided to let the cured cases speak for themselves—to let myself be the instrument for their silent voices. The result was remedy chapters that were more direct and precise, without ambiguity, exaggeration, or conjecture.”–Roger Morrison, pp. xiii-xiv [2]

Thus, Roger decided not to revise that 1993 book but to create, more or less, a new work. It would retain the basic structure of the Desktop Guide and incorporate his new findings. In a new role as a reporter and translator of sorts, the cured cases “became the author of the book.”

This required Roger to be as accurate as possible to his sources—in other words, the work of the entire homeopathic community. Logically, his next question became, “How do we make progress from here?”

“Provings are the first step in unlocking the inner story of our remedies. Once we have a proving, the next step is to cure somebody with the remedy. This takes the remedy from the realm of theory to reality. The cured cases eventually surpass the proving and show which proving symptoms were most reliable. They also put the proving symptoms into context. After enough cases are cured, we can begin to consolidate a picture of the remedy.”–Roger Morrison, p. xiv

So, while the information in this book helps to complete an understanding of remedies it also “...expands the very idea of clinical confirmation. The information is precise, organized, and comprehensive. I am also amazed at the number of remedies included in the book, many of which are rare remedies, some of them not finding a mention in the repertories since they have had scanty or no provings. Yet, through informative clinical cases, Dr. Morrison has been able to make them accessible to the profession, pending further provings.”–Rajan Sankaran, p. xi

As an example of the difference between “then and now” (1993 vs. 2025), let Actaea spicata serve that role. From his 1993 treatise:

• Actaea spicata

  “Actaea spicata is a remedy to remember in cases of rheumatism of the small joints of the hands and wrists” (Caul., Caust.).

  Extremities: Pain in the small joints of wrists, hands, fingers, ankles, and feet. Pain and swelling of joints worse from slight exertion or fatigue. Pain worse from touch.

  “Comparisons: Caust., Caul., Guai.”–Roger Morrison, p. 7

  Now, from his current book, one finds this remedy updated with a larger and more elaborate rendering (NB: Some of the formatting has been altered here to save space and allow the text to flow more easily):

• Actaea spicata

  The patient complains of being highly sensitive—meaning easily hurt, wounded, or offended. He works hard and may appear to be quite ambitious—even egotistical at times. Yet underneath, he is quite vulnerable, struggles with his self-esteem, and is sensitive to his own failures as well as slights, neglect, and insults. He needs the good opinion of others and often depends upon his family—really unable to be contented when alone or away from his loved ones (6 of the cases reviewed mentioned a strong need for praise and approval). Thus, he may also have a great desire to please those around him and tries to suppress his needs and his anger to maintain relationships and avoid conflict. When pushed past his compensatory capacity by failure of performance or rude or indifferent people around him, he becomes nervous and reactive. He worries about the future, anticipating failures or health problems, and becomes “desperate about trifles” as our texts describe it. On the other hand, he may burst forth with angry words which he soon regrets. Prof. Vithoulkas mentions a flirtatious and even womanizing aspect as well as egotism and perfectionism.

• Physicals:

  Actaea spicata is traditionally considered in cases of rheumatism of the small joints of the hands and wrists (Caul., Caust.) but generalized rheumatic complaints were prominent. Our books mention that the pains are worse from motion (and indeed the rheumatic patients were aggravated from overuse of any kind), but two cases were better from motion. Also prominent are headaches, menstrual irregularities, and skin conditions.

  MIND: Easily offended and angry but tries hard to suppress it. Desire to throw things, curse. Rudeness. Desire to please people. Desires company; miserable when alone. Irresolution. Anxiety - Worse: In company. Night. Lying down. Better: Motion. Gloomy, brooding, discouraged. Feels he cannot succeed. Mind feels blocked; cannot concentrate. Shrieking. Sensitive to noise. Ailments: After grief. Dreams: Unsuccessful attempts to do something (catch a train or climb something). Pursued. Animals. Snakes. Injury. Ghosts. Fears: Humiliation and disrespect. Alone. Death. Insanity. Failure.

  GENERALS: Chilly and highly sensitive to cold. Worse in damp or rainy weather. Better in sunny weather. Unbearable pain: Pinching. Needles. Tearing, drawing. Tingling. General aggravation after anger, fright, grief. Fasting aggravates. Weakness, dizziness, and faintness. Worse: Slight exertion. Fasting or just after eating. Talking. Chronic effects from injury. Profuse perspiration. Cold sweats from exertion. Night sweats.

  FOOD: Desires: Sweets. Rich food and ice cream. Spicy. Salty. Ice water. Aversions: Sour.

  Head: Headache or migraine, often in forehead. Worse: Sun. Walking or exertion. Odors. Binding. Extends: To occiput. Heat of head.

  EYE: Twitch about the eyes.

  EAR: Ear pain. Worse: Sneezing. Blowing the nose. Obstructed sensation in ear.

  FACE: Acne.

  MOUTH: Aphthae. Bruxism.

  GASTROINTESTINAL: Constipation sometimes with frequent urging. Indigestion from fruit (especially old fruit), pickled meat, rich food. Hemorrhoids.

  UROGENITAL: Irregular or delayed menses. Menses suppressed after fright or from cold. Vaginitis.

  CHEST: Rheumatism of chest wall. Constriction about the heart. Heat or burning in breasts.

  BACK: Neck and shoulder tension.

  EXTREMITIES: Pain in the small joints (wrists, hands, fingers, thumb, ankles, and feet). Pain and swelling of joints; paralytic pains or sharp, tearing, burning pain. Worse: Slight exertion. Fatigue. Touch. Motion, especially first motion. Change of weather. Wet weather. Cold. Cold wind. Writing. Better: Sunny weather. Motion.

  Rheumatism; patient leaves house fine but returns from walk in much pain. Stiffness of hands. Worse: Rest. Hand deformity developing at menopause. Cramping in the hands and fingers or soles of feet or toes. Cold, numb, discolored fingers (Raynaud's). Frequent strains and sprains of joints. Jerking of limb. Paralyzed sensation of painful part. Uncovers feet.

  CLINICAL: Acne. Aphthae. Arthritis. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Constipation. Hemorrhoids. Migraine. Neuralgia. Pleurisy. Pneumonia. Polycystic ovaries. Repetitive stress injury. Raynaud's syndrome. Rheumatism. Rheumatoid arthritis. Sinusitis. Tinnitus. Uterine fibroid.

  COMPARISONS: Pulsatilla—Sensitive and suppressing anger, desires company and better from consolation, headache in the sun, menstrual irregularities, earache and sinus troubles, desires ice cream, Pulsatilla is more sensitive to heat and desires open air. Caul., Caust., Guai., Pall., Ran-B., Staph. Other Ranunculaceae.

  EVIDENCE REVIEWED: 10 modern cases. Three historic cases. Lectures and articles by Dr. Sankaran and Prof. Vithoulkas.”–Roger Morrison, pp. 29–31

[On the first page, in this case 29, when remedies are introduced, there appears a gray box containing basic identifying information. In this particular case: Common Name: Baneberry; Plant Group: Magnolidae, Ranunculaceae; Miasm: Ringworm (RS)].

As you may notice, the former Actaea spic. is ⅓ page in length while the new one is two and a third pages. This is the case throughout nearly all of the Materia Medica. For example, the difference between Calc. carb. is 5.5 to 17 pages, Calendula is ¼ to 4 pages, Ars. alb is 6 to 13 pages, and Bella. is 4.5 to 10 pages—old/new, respectively. By the way, there are just over 200 remedies in this Materia Medica, Abelmoschus to Euphrasia.

After Sankaran and Morrison's opening comments, a six and a half page section, “About This Book,” explains the book's structure and other idiosyncrasies, that is, how to use and think about the choices of remedies included, the narrative and schema of the Materia Medica, influences which the various authors had on his Materia Medica and finally various other points concerning Punctuation and Pronouns, Quotation Marks, Mineral Compound Names, Plant and Animal Names, Abbreviations, Lists, Bold Type, and Starred Symptoms. For example, “Bold Type” indicates a symptom which is present in 30% of cases “...If the symptom was somewhat less than 30 percent but stated very strongly and spontaneously mentioned by the patient, it still is listed in bold type.”–p. xxi

This book is very well-produced with an exceptionally clear layout much like his 1993 treatise: this allows the eye to flow easily through the material. Bibliography or reference sections are not included or an index. While the latter is not needed, it would be helpful to have a bibliography. Perhaps, these items will be included in Volumes 2 and 3—did I say that the entire Materia Medica will be contained within three volumes? They will.

My other criticisms are of a minor nature. For example, footnote reference numbers are quite small making them difficult to locate, yet footnotes placed at the page bottom is convenient. Major practitioners are referenced using abbreviations, for example, RS - Rajan Sankaran; PK - S. R. Phatak; GV - George Vithoulkas, etc. This is useful, of course, but references to others appear often as last name only and without reference citings, for example, Konstantos, Choudhury, Houat, Shah, Shore, Smits, Mortelmans, Nair, Lindemann, etc. Perhaps in a future edition, or in volumes two and three, these minor shortcomings will be addressed.

Enjoy this important contribution by a contemporary master of our beloved art.

“I feel an intense responsibility in writing this book to get to the heart of the cases, to state the results as clearly and simply as possible, and to put the information in a form that is pleasing to the eye and easy to reference. My whole purpose in writing this textbook is to give you, my cherished colleagues and students of our beloved homeopathy, a tool which you richly deserve. I truly hope and believe this book will help you find remedies for your patients, will help you with your decision-making in practice, and will give you more certainty and confidence in your prescriptions. May it be a companion to you on this often difficult path...”–Roger Morrison, p. xiv

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
24. Juni 2025