Treasure Works of John Henry Clarke-A Compendium of His Philosophical Writings

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As previously no significant attempt has been made to study the entire length and breadth of Clarke's philosophy, our profession have missed a great and profound voice necessary for the science of homoeopathy. It is the first time ever an attempt has been made to research exhaustively about his entire literature and brings together the most noteworthy philosophical viewpoints of Clarke at one place. Moreover, the most important aspects of Clarke's life have been compiled at one place along with the chronological evolution of his entire literature.

In this book, the editor has insured that the original structure of literature remains intact as far as possible. Instead of editing and commenting throughout the book, all the necessary information in separate chapters at the beginning of the book has been provided. Hopefully, this work will help us in rediscovering the philosophical wisdom as well as clinical gems of Clarke and empower us to combat the rising burden of chronic diseases.

Dr Himanshu Sekhar Tiwary, M.D. (Hom) NIH, a very well known name in the subject of Organon of Medicine and Homoeopathic literature. He is one of the strongest voices in India for the revival of original and time tested literature of Homoeopathy. His past contribution in the Treasure works of P. Schmidt as well as Therapeutics of cancer from masters of homoeopathy is already well appreciated by the profession. He is presently serving as Medical Officer in CGHS, New Delhi, Govt. of India.

Dr Tiwary has shown himself to be an appropriate editor for this book: like Clarke he is a scholar and an industrious writer who has collected material from around the world.

Clarke republished anti-homeopathy correspondence from The Times known as Odium Medicum. His best friends included James Compton Burnett, Thomas Skinner, and Robert Cooper. They regularly dined together and after Cooper's death they became known as the Cooper Club. Each of the members could themselves be the subject of an article.

Clarke wrote the Dictionary because of his own laziness so that he would not have to search so hard in his books if he had it all in one place. So, he wrote down everything they said at dinner and the Dictionary of Materia Medica is full of symptoms with (B) and (RTC) as sources. In fact you cannot discover much about how Burnett prescribed from his own prolific writings, you have to read him with one eye on Clarke to see the real reasons for his prescriptions. Also, some of Burnett's one liners finished up in Clarke's Clinical Repertory. His Dictionary was presented to American colleagues at a conference in Atlantic City with the sentiment "Hands Across the Sea".

You may not have realised that Skinner was a high potency man and the Hospital staff in the 1870's were mainly 3x-ers. When Clarke became a true Hahnemannian under the influence of Skinner all offices became closed to him, hence the club and its brilliant publications. His obituaries make it clear that he used all the potencies as needed, and that when he was later offered honours within the Society he refused them. Clarke did write about philosophy as demonstrated here; his Constitutional Medicine is the only clear and original summary of the obtuse ideas of the celebrated Dr von Grauvogl and his infamous "Hydrogenoid Constitution'.

The last two decades have witnessed quite dramatic changes The in the global outlook of chronic diseases and its treatment. The WHO movement for the epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCD) and the UN resolution in the general assembly of 2011 signifies the severity and seriousness of the matter. It was only the second time in the history of United Nations that a general assembly was called to discuss a health issue and build a general consensus amongst the state heads of different member countries. It's subsequent high level follow up meetings held in 2014 and again in 2018, further reiterates the threat of the rising chronic diseases in the whole world.

Since the discovery of antibiotics in 1929 and steroid therapy in 19497, the allopathic system of medicine dominated the entire health care system in the world for about 50 yrs. Their treatment approach was further in alignment with rising number of health sector industries like pharmaceutical, biomedical as well as the corporate multispecialty chain of hospitals.