The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. Knowledge of Remedies

[ 1 ] The substances whose use as remedies is to be considered must first be known in such a way that the possible effects of the forces they contain, both outside and inside the human organism, can be assessed. This can only to a small degree be a matter of considering the possible effects that are investigated by ordinary chemistry, but it is important to observe the effects that result from the connection of the inner constitution of a substance in relation to the forces that radiate from the earth or radiate into it.

[ 2 ] From this point of view, consider, for example, the antimony luster. Antimony is closely related to the sulphur compounds of other metals. Sulphur has a sum of properties that remain constant within relatively narrow limits. It is sensitive to natural processes such as heating, combustion, etc. This makes it capable of playing an important role within the protein substances that are completely detached from the forces of the earth and are incorporated into the etheric effects. As antimony is related to sulphur, it easily participates in this incorporation into the etheric effects. It is therefore easy to bring it into the activity of the protein in the human body and to help it to an etheric effect if this body, through some pathological condition, cannot itself transform a protein substance introduced from outside in such a way that it integrates itself into its own activity.

[ 3 ] But antimony also exhibits other peculiarities. Wherever it can, it strives for a tufted shape. It thus divides itself into lines, which move away from the earth and towards the forces acting in the ether. Thus with antimony something is introduced into the human organism that meets the action of the etheric body halfway. What happens to antimony in the Seiger process also points to the etheric relationship of this substance. It becomes fine-fibered through this process. Now the segregation process is one that begins physically at the bottom, so to speak, and passes into the etheric at the top. The antimony integrates itself into this transition.

[ 4 ] Furthermore, antimony, which oxidizes when it glows, produces a white smoke when it burns, which clings to cold bodies and produces antimony flowers.

[ 5 ] Furthermore, antimony has a certain resistance to electrical effects. If it is treated electrolytically in a certain way and brought to the cathode as a precipitate, this explodes on contact with a metal tip.

[ 6 ] All this shows that antimony contains the tendency to change easily into the ether element at the moment when the conditions for this are present, even to a small degree. To the spiritual vision all these details are only hints; for this perceives the relationship between ego activity and antimony activity directly in such a way that the antimony processes, brought into the human organism, act like the ego organization.

[ 7 ] In the human organism, the blood shows a tendency to coagulate in its flow. This tendency is the one that is under the influence of the ego organization and must be regulated by it. Blood is an organic medium product. What arises in the blood has undergone processes that are on the way to becoming those of the full human organism, i.e. the ego-organization. It still has to undergo processes that fit into the formation of this organism. The nature of these processes can be recognized from the following. In that the blood coagulates when removed from the body, it shows that it has a tendency to coagulate by itself, but must be continually prevented from coagulating in the human organism. What prevents blood from clotting is the force by which the organism incorporates it. It integrates itself into the body through the formative forces that lie just before coagulation. If clotting were to occur, life would be endangered.

[ 8 ] If the organism is therefore dealing with a pathological condition that consists of a deficiency of these forces aimed at blood clotting, antimony acts as a remedy in one form or another.

[ 9 ] The formation of the organism is essentially such a transformation of the protein substance through which it comes to interact with mineralizing forces. Such forces are contained in lime, for example. The shell formation of the oyster is an illustration of what is involved here. The oyster must get rid of that which is present in the shell formation in order to retain the protein substance in its own nature. Something similar is also present in the shell formation of the egg. In the oyster, the calcareous substance is separated in order to not incorporate it into the protein action. This incorporation must take place in the human organism. The mere protein effect must be transformed into one in which the formative forces that can be evoked in the calcareous organism by the ego organization are involved. This must take place within the blood formation. Antimony counteracts the calcifying force and, through its relationship with the ether element, leads the protein, which wants to preserve its form, over into formlessness, which is susceptible to the influences of the calcareous or similar elements.

[ 10 ] In typhoid fever it is clear that the pathological condition consists in a lack of transformation of the protein substance into a formative blood substance. The form of diarrhea that occurs shows that the incapacity for this transformation already begins in the intestine. The severe impairment of consciousness that occurs shows that the ego organization is driven out of the body and cannot work. This is because the protein substance cannot reach the mineralizing forces in which the ego organization can work. Proof of this view is also the fact that the emptying brings the danger of infection. In these, the tendency to destroy the formative forces is increased.

[ 11 ] If antimony preparations in the appropriate composition are used for typhoid phenomena, they prove to be a remedy. They strip the protein substance of its inherent forces and make it inclined to adapt to the formative forces of the ego organization.

[ 12 ] From points of view that are often common in the present day, one will say that views such as the one indicated here about antimony are not exact; and one will point to the exactness of the usual chemical methods. But in truth, the chemical effects of the substances are as irrelevant to the effect in the human organism as the chemical composition of a dye is to the handling of this substance by the painter. Certainly, the painter does well to know something of the chemical starting point. But how he treats the colorants in painting comes from a different methodology. And so it is for the therapist. He can regard chemistry as a basis that means something to him, but the way the substances work in the human organism has nothing to do with this chemistry. Anyone who sees exactness only in what chemistry - including pharmaceutical chemistry - determines destroys the possibility of gaining an understanding of what happens in the organism during healing processes.