AUSTRIAN PROVERS

Presented By,Dr.Shenu P.KareemDr.Sreelakshmi V.

INTRODUCTION

• Hahnemann started a new line of

materia medica by testing the drugs on

himself, his friends and family members.

• He called this process by the name of

Drug proving which literally means

proving the (curative) properties lying in

drugs.

HAHNEMANNIAN SYMPTOM ARRANGEMENT

• Anatomical schema

• Detached symptoms

• The underlying unity of symptoms

and the evolutionary order in which

symptoms occur in a prover in

connection with a particular drug are

missed

NEED FOR REPROVING ??????

• Most serious obstacle to the practice

and advance of the homoeopathic

method- HAHNEMANNIAN SYMPTOM

ARRANGEMENT.

• To compete against the allopathic

opponents.

FOR UNDERTAKING THIS

RESPONSIBILITY A GROUP OF

PHYSICIANS FROM AUSTRIA WITH THEIR

UNTIRING AND HEROIC DEVOTION

FORMED AUSTRIAN HOMOEOPATHIC

SOCIETY (1842-1848)

HOMOEOPATHY IN AUSTRIA

• The homeopathic mode of treatment of

Samuel Hahnemann was prohibited in

Austria by a decree of the Chancellor’s

Court of the 2nd of October, 1819.

• Notwithstanding this, the cholera was

successfully treated in 1831 by Austrian

Homeopathists in Galicia, Moravia,

Austria, Bohemia and Hungary.

• The immediate result obtained was the

removal of the prohibition to practice

Homeopathy in Austria in February,

1837.

• The liberty to dispense the dilutions

and triturations was subsequently

accorded.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• The re-proving of medicines

• Without excluding occasional

original experiments.

• To study the full physiological

action of drugs from

repeated and increasing

doses of the mother-tincture.

MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY

• Watzke

• Huber

• Mayerhofer

• Wachtel

• Wurmb

• Arneth

• Gerstel

• von Zlatarovich

Had 8 members each was entrusted with proving of 20-

30 provers.

Franz Wurmb

• 1805 – 1864

• An Austrian orthodox physician who converted

to Homeopathy

• Become the founder and six times the

president of the Austrian Homeopathic Society

• The founder of the Vienna Provers Union

• And an Editor of The Oestrerreiche Zeitschrift

Für Homëopathie

• An honorary member of the German

Homeopathic Physicians

• Wurmb published his essay on proving of

Sulphur, a proving of Nat mur

• In 1852, he published the Homeopathic

Clinical Studies with Caspar, detailing their

results from the clinical trials into

homeopathy at the Leopoldstadt

Homeopathic Hospital, including some his

most important lectures, illustrating his

astonishing knowledge of homeopathic

remedies, techniques and philosophy.

Philipp Anton Watzke

• 1803 – 1867

• Austrian orthodox physician who converted to

homeopathy

• Editor of the edited the Oestrerreiche Zeitschrift für

Homëopathie

• Member of the Austrian Homeopathic Society

• President of The Vienna Provers Union

• In 1843 began a proving of salt (Nat mur), and he

also conducted a proving of Colocynth

Adolph Heinrich Gerstel

• 1805 – 1890

• A Czech orthodox physician who converted to

Homeopathy

• Member of the Vienna Society of Homeopathic

Physicians

• Was elected an Honorary Member of the Institute

at Philadelphia in 1876

• Gerstel was a student of Samuel

Hahnemann, and one of his provers

• Elected an Honorary Member of the

Institute at Philadelphia in 1876

Josef von Zlatarovich

• 1807 – 1874

• Held the chair of Homeopathy In Vienna,

• Professor Of Pathology and Professor Of

Materia Medica in the Joseph’s Academy

Of Vienna.

• Zlatarovich arranged provings of Aconite,

and Bryonia, and, Kali bichromium, and

Nat mur, and Sulphur, and Thuja.

MEDICINES REPROVED

• Aconite

• Bryonia

• Colocynth

• Natrum muriaticum

• Sulphur

• Thuja

• Glonoine.

PRIMARY PROVINGS

• Argentum nitricum

• Silver

• Kali-bi

• Cochineal

• Coccus cacti

DOSE AND POTENCY

• Proving were instituted with

massive doses

• The middle and higher potencies

were invariably tried after the

former.

• Used upto 1000 drops of mother

tincture at a time.

PUBLICATIONS

• The monographs containing

these most valuable provings

were chiefly published in the

Oesterreichische Zeitschrift

fur Homoopathie, a journal

conducted by the Austrian

Society, which runs through

four years.

CONCLUSIONS

• Confirmation of Hahnemann’s discoveries.

• Powerful arguments against allopathic

opponents

• Got massive physiological reaction of

drugs in orgnism

• Delicate reaction of drugs

lost(attenuations)

• Less important in practical use.

• The lower preparations did not

influence the susceptibility of the

system in comparison to the higher

potencies.  

RECORDS OF AUSTRIAN

PROVERS SOCIETY

PROVING OF ACONITE

• Sixteen provers

• Conducted thirty-seven experiments.

• Six of these were made with dilutions

from the first to the twelfth centesimal

• In five of these cases, large doses of the

tincture had been taken before the

dilution.

• In one case the prover began with the first

centesimal dilution and got symptoms

PROVING OF BRYONIA

• Fourteen provers

• Made twenty-nine experiments, of

which

• Ten were with dilutions from the first

decimal to the 203rd.

• In two of these, the provers began

with the dilutions, viz.: With the tenth

and the thirtieth, and got in one case

very graphic symptoms.

In the other, symptoms unequivocal

though less numerous.

In the cases in which dilutions were

used after massive doses of the tincture

had been taken, considerable intervals

were allowed to elapse after the last

symptoms from the tincture-proving

disappeared before the dilutions were

taken.

PROVING OF SILVER

• The drug was taken by one

prover each in the first,

second, and third triturations,

and in the fourth, fifth, and

sixth dilutions, and valuable

symptoms were obtained by

each.

PROVING OF ARG.NIT

• The proving was begun with the first decimal

trituration, and subsequently in succession the

second, sixth, and thirtieth dilutions were used.

• The effect of each dose was allowed to expend

itself before a new experiment was instituted.

• Symptoms clear and characteristic covering a

period of six to nine days, were obtained from a

single dose of the thirtieth dilution

PROVING OF KALI.BI

• In only two cases was a dilution higher than the

third employed.

• In both of these the twelfth was used and

symptoms were obtained.

• In one, that of Dr.Wachtl, the symptoms from a

single dose give a complete picture of the

subjective and objective effects of this drug in

the pharynx and neighbouring organs.

• In neither of these cases had the drug been

previously taken in massive doses.  

PROVING OF COLOCYNTH

• Fifteen provers

• Made twenty-five experiments.

• Ten were made with dilutions, and in

nine, symptoms were obtained.

• In three of these, the third dilution was

used

• No other preparation of colocynth had

previously been taken

THUJA

• Twenty-three provers

• Made fifty-nine experiments.

• Seventeen were made with dilutions, and, in

thirteen, unequivocal symptoms followed.

• Nine began their provings with dilutions and got

symptoms.

• Four began their provings with dilutions and got no

symptoms

• seven conducted their provings with massive doses

of the tincture without obtaining any unequivocal

symptoms.

PROVING OF COCHINEAL

• Four provers began their experiments

with the hundredth dilution

• One with the sixtieth

• One with the thirtieth dilution

• Everybody got all valuable symptoms.

• One prover, on the other hand, began

with the 200th dilution and gradually

descended, getting no symptoms until

he took massive doses.  

PROvING OF NAT.MUR

• Thirty-nine provers took part.

• Fourteen began with dilutions varying

from the sixth to thirtieth.

• The majority beginning with the thirtieth.

• Twelve obtained symptoms of which some

are of great value, lasting and recurring for

many days after the last dose.