Strange, Rare, and Peculiar

I have a lot of favorite remedies. One of them is Arsenicum album. It's most well known for its action in acute gastroenteritis. Some of the symptoms you might look for if you wanted to take Arsenicum for the stomach flu would be burning diarrhea, a great deal of restlessness, and thirst for small sips of water. These are all very commonly seen in this particular remedy picture.

There may be other symptoms present as well, some of which would be considered strange, rare, and peculiar, or SRP. According to Samuel Hahnemann's Organon of Medicine, aphorism 153, these are "...striking, exceptional, unusual, and odd (characteristic) signs and symptoms of the disease case." These less common symptoms are often what leads the homeopath to the correct remedy. If you are taking a case and someone says "this is weird and probably unrelated....", pay attention! This could be the key to your case.

Several years ago I had a young client of 8 who came to see me with his parents. He had a terrible rash on his trunk that was bothering him a great deal and did not respond to any treatments the parents had tried. The case was very vague, as there were few related symptoms. Skin symptoms are difficult for a number of reasons (often we do not want to treat them, but that is for another post).

Finally I asked the father what new things the family may have been doing lately. Was there a new detergent being used? Had they traveled somewhere they hadn't been before? He racked his brain and said after a few minutes, "Well, we did go fishing right before this started. He caught his first fish and kissed it." (For those who may not know, many people who fish believe kissing the first one you catch is good luck.)

In the Complete Repertory I found:

Skin, eruptions, fish, after

It's a small rubric, with 8 remedies. And although one might assume it refers to having actually ingested fish, that is not necessarily the case.

My client was given Arsenicum, the remedy in that list of 8 which most closely matched all the other symptoms, and the rash was completely gone after a few doses of 30C. Additionally, there was no suppression due to the remedy, as there were no new bothersome symptoms, nor any worsening of any that may have already been present.

Without that SRP symptom, I might have easily missed the remedy and made a relatively simple case very complicated.

Materia medica

Arsenicum album (Ars): This remedy has a great deal of anxiety which arises from insecurity and worries about health. It is difficult to reassure them. There is also a need for a very strong support network. This can be cultivated within the family or with a strong network of friends. They become very reliant on the people around them. There is also a good deal of compulsiveness and a need to constantly be in control at all times. The focus of the physical pathology of this remedy is on the gastrointestinal tract. It is one of our primary “stomach flu” remedies. This patient will be very restless. They may fidget constantly or even need to stand up and pace.